


'Mf^y^' . 




RANDOM RIMES, 



RANDOM RIMES, 



MEDICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS. 



BY 

N. W. AND J. P. RAND. 



BOSTON: ^ \ ^ ^-^^ 



OTIS CLAPP & SON. 

1897. 






Copyright 1897. 
By N. W. and J. P. Rand. 






PRESS OF OLIVER B. WOOD, 
WORCESTER, MASS. 



THE verses of this little book lay no claim to 
literary merit. They have been written from 
time to time simply as a diversion from exacting 
professional duties, and are now presented at the 
request of friends who have shown a kindly inter- 
est in them. That they may be found true to na- 
ture and the varied e:^periences of our common 
life is the hope of 

THE AUTHORS. 



CONTENTS. 



Small Capitals are here used to designate the productions 
of N. W. R., while those of J. P. R. are indicated by Italics. 

PART I. — OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 

Page 

I. The Cycler's Song, 3 

II. Our Faith, 8 

III. The Homoeopath, 14 

IV. Ode, 17 

V. Maud Muller (Medicated), .... 19 

VI. Mother's Baby, 28 

VII. Lines to a Microbe, 36 

VIII. The Dessert, 42 

IX. Nostalgia, 47 



XU CONTENTS. 

Pagk 

X. Sons of Hahnemann, 49 

XI. Our Banner, 61 

XII. Our Native State, 63 

XIII. (9^^(toN. H.), 67 

XIV. An Interlude 69 

XV. Pat's Phii^osophy, 80 

XVI. The Old Bach, 83 

XVII. The Sekrit uv Sukces, 86 

XVIII. Cleopatra's Needle, 89 

XIX. The Penny-post, 92 

XX. BEIvSHAZZAR, 94 



PART II. — GLEANED FROM NATURE. 

I. Our World, 99 

II. March, loi 

III. Maying, 103 

IV. A Merry-go-round, 107 

V. At Eventide, ijo 

VI. The Granite Hii,i,s, 112 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

Page 
VII. A Retrospect of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, ii8 

VIII. C1.EMAT1S, 120 

IX. The Mapi,e, 122 

X. To A Wounded Thrush, .... 124 

XI. Fai.i,ing IvEaves, 126 

XII. Hazei. B1.00M, 128 

XIII. Harvest Hymn, 130 

XIV. December, 132 

XV. Life is a Sky, 136 

XVI. Music, 138 

XVII. The Fire King, 142 



PART III. — MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 

I. In Mystery, 147 

II. The Honest Man, 149 

HI. Just One, 151 

IV. Serenade, 154 

V. His First Pair, 156 



xiv , CONTENTS., 

Page 

VI. Our Birthday, 158 

VII. For a Goi^den Wedding, .... 160 

VIII. A Fiftieth Anniversary, . . . 162 

IX. To Whittier, 164 

X. Music, 165 

XI. Forgiveness, 166 

XII. Grandeur, 168 

XIII. Thanksgiving, 170 

XIV. At Bethlehem, 172 

XV. An Baster Thought, . . . . . 175 

XVI. Liberty, 177 

XVII. Decoration Day, 179 

XVIII. Adoration, 181 

XIX. A Tribute, 188 

XX. Friendship, 190 

XXI. A Sainted Mother, 192 

XXII. In Memoriam, 194 

XXIII. My Beautiful Dead, 197 

XXIV. Gethseniane, 199 

XXV. Sleep, 201 



CONTENTS. XV 

Page 

XXVI. Under the Snow, 203 

XXVII. RewEF, 205 

XXVIII. The City of Peace, 209 



PART I. 

OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 



Occasional and Fragmentary. 



I. 

THE CYCIvER'S SONG. 

\17HEN the world is dark about you 

And your boon companions doubt you, 
When your sweetheart seems without you 
Quite 

as well 

to feel ; 
Do not fly to pew or pastor ; 
Do not trust to pill or plaster ; 
What will save you from disaster 
Is 
a fly- 
ing wheel. 

When your throbbing temples quiver, 
When your bones with ague shiver. 



RANDOM RIMES. 

And the bile within your liver 
Threat- 
ens to 

congeal ; 
What will give exhilaration, 
Quicken up the circulation, 
End your stupor and stagnation 
Ivike 

a mag- 
ic wheel ? 

When your brain is dazed with thinking 
And your muscles soft are shrinking 
Till your very soul seems sinking, 
As 

you home- 
ward reel ; 
What will make you strong as iron, 
Brighter than the famed Orion, 
Give you courage of a lion 
I.ike 

a dash- 
ing wheel ? 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 

When your pulse is weak and thready, 
When your breathing is unsteady, 
And your stomach never ready 
To 

digest 

a meal ; 
What will end the enervation. 
Re-establish respiration, 
And assist assimilation 
Like 

the health- 
ful wheel? 

When you magnify your losses. 
Petty sHghts and countless crosses. 
When the knave your name endorses 
Makes 

a stu- 
pid deal ; 
Be not hopeless, unbelieving. 
Fortune is not past retrieving. 
There are chances for achieving, — 
Learn 

to ride 

a wheel. 



RANDOM RIMKS. 

Oh ! who is worthier a crown 
Of riches, honor and renown, 
Than he who taught us care to drown 
And ev- 
ery sor- 
row heal,- 
Who taught us how to Hghtly spring 
lyike gladsome bird upon the wing 
And guide that airy, fairy thing — 
A pal- 
pita- 
ting wheel, — 

To breathe the air of morning bright, 
To revel in its dewy light, 
And reverently before the might 
Of God's 

crea- 
tion kneel, 
Or when the evening twilight glows 
To quit the haunts of countless foes 
And earn a blissful night's repOvSe 
By ram- 
bling on 

a wheel? 



OCCASIONAI, AND FRAGMKNTARY. 

How silently we glide along, 
A whirl, a flash, and we are gone, 
I/ike Hermes with winged sandals on 
Jove's man- 
dates to 

reveal ! 
See ! See ! The trees with flying feet 
Rush madly by us as we meet, 
While far behind the winds so fleet 
In vain 

pursue 

our wheel ! 

Then ho ! my boys, to care good-by, 
From toil and trouble let us fly. 
And find beneath the boundless sky 
What hu- 
man haunts 

conceal ; 
Come, all who pine for safe retreat 
From stifled store and crowded street. 
Behold this paragon complete — 
The soul- 
inspir- 
ing wheel ! 

October 26, 1894. 



RANDOM RIMES. 



II. 

OUR FAITH. 

Read at the annual dinner of the Homoeopathic 
Medical Society of Western Massachusetts, Spring- 
field, March 20, 1895. 

A S comrades of a scattered band 
''*• At war against disease and death, 
We meet to grasp the friendly hand 
And reaffirm our common faith. 

We reaffirm, but not abuse. 

The sacred rights for which we stand — 
The right to take, the right to use. 

The best our wisdom can command. 

We bow unto no man the knee ; 

We brook no ancient, iron creed ; 
Our attitude is — lyoyalty 

To Truth wherever she may lead. 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 

Whate'er of worth the fathers wrought 
We humbly, gratefully confess ; 

Nor prize we less the latest thought 
That comes humanity to bless. 

We honor age, we honor youth, 
We honor every class, or clan. 

That bravely battles for the truth 
And for the betterment of man. 

Nor care we what the means, or whence, 
In which restoring power we find — 

From matter, or the more intense 
And subtle potencies of mind, — 

From earth, or air, or sun, or seas. 

Or from the lightning's lurid breath, — 

We care not, so they heal disease 
And stay the awful hand of death. 

If this be * ' dogmatism blind, ' ' 
With dear old Whittier we say : 

Pray for us, that our feet may find 
Some broader, safer, surer way." 



lO RANDOM RIMES. 

Albeit this our faith holds fast — 
The kindlier method, known as ours, 

Above the crudeness of the past, 
Like Calvary over Sinai towers ! 

The long- used lancet lies at rest ; 

The leech bides in its native flood ; 
And ne'er again, at man's behest. 

Shall they regale on human blood. 

The cruel thirst of time ago 

Is lost in crystal waters quaffed ; 

For Hahnemann has lived — and lo ! 
The fevered lip hath cooling draught ! 

All honor to that gracious name ! 

Nail it aloft before our sight, 
Among the noblest sons of fame, 

In characters of living light ! 

But Heaven forbid that we should boast 
Over our bit of knowledge gained. 

It seems so swallowed up and lost 
Beside the boundless unattained. 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. II 

The unattained ! Stupendous word ! 

What visions in its face we see ! 
And in its syllables are heard 

What whisperings from futurity ! 

It points us to a golden day, 

Wherein man shall so comprehend 

Great Nature's laws — and so obey, 
That all disease shall have an end ; 

A day when gladness grief shall drown, 

And dirge to delectation rise. 
And Prophylaxis win the crown 

From Therapeutics' envious eyes ; 

A day when time, exempt from fears, 
Shall sit so lightly on the brow 

That man shall round an hundred years 
As gracefully as sixty now. 

Perchance he may on earth remain 
So long as he shall choose to stay, 

Then take some through, aerial train, 
And, like Elijah, whirl away ! 



12 RANDOM RIMES. 

Indeed we cannot apprehend 
The wonders we may yet behold, 

When blood of horse and man shall blend 
As in the centaurs, famed of old ; 

When wicked germs no more shall dare 

To stifle babies at the breast, 
And all the microbes of the air 

Have been forever laid at rest ; 

When people, of whatever "school," 
Shall cease to ' * dose ' ' — if cease they can,- 

And learn that Nature, as a rule, 
If not abused is true to man. 

'Tis coming ! Yes, we dare to hope. 
Though doubt doth every point beset, 

The culture tube and microscope 
Will solve the mighty problem yet. 

'Tis coming — the protecting light 
Of higher knowledge yet to be — 

As sure as stars come out at night, 
Or rivers reach the roaring sea. 



OCCASIONAIv AND FRAGMENTARY. 1 3 

'Tis coming ! Expectation thrills 
At thought of triumphs pressing on ! 

See ! Even now the eastern hills 
Are bannered with the flags of dawn ! 



14 RANDOM RIMES. 



III. 

THE HOMCEOPATH. 

From class poem, New York Homoeopathic Med- 
ical College, March 14, 1883. 

TVIOT a quack, nor a pretender, 
*■ Not a patent nostrum vender, 
Not of dogmas a defender 

Is the Homceopath. 

But a man who takes and uses 
Any drug and dose he chooses. 
Nor his title thus abuses 

Of a Homoeopath. 

All this bitter jar and jangle, 
All this rivalry and wrangle 
Does not in the least entangle 

The genial Homoeopath. 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 1 5 

If a troubled brother needs him, 
With a ready hand he heeds him, 
Thus his code of duty leads him 
As a Homoeopath. 

And if some despise, refuse him, 
Ridicule him and abuse him, 
'Tis for them to mourn who lose him, 
Not the Homoeopath. 

As the fearless roving tar, 
Guided by a constant star. 
Gains the haven sought afar, 

So the Homoeopath. 

Not empirically shifting 
To each transient wave's uplifting, 
Nor with aimless breezes drifting 
Is the Homoeopath ; 

But his course is onward ever. 
Winds and weaves disturb him never, 
Storms but strengthen the endeavor 
Of the Homoeopath. 



1 6 RANDOM RIMES. 

Anything to cure disease, 
I^et it come from land or seas, 
Is a Godsend that will please 

Every Homoeopath. 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMKNTARY. 1 7 



IV. 

ODE. 

Sung at the banquet of the New York HomcEop- 
athic Medical College Alumni Association, New 
York, May 2, 1895. 

r^ RKAT Hahnemann of thee 
^^ And Homoeopathy 

To-day we sing ! 
Thou, whose colossal mind 
Brought law from chaos blind, 
To thee let all mankind 

A tribute bring ! 

The nations look to thee, 
Blest Homoeopathy, 
For glad relief — 
They wait with out-stretched palms 



1 8 RANDOM RIMKS. 

Thine all-restoring balms 
To still the dread alarms 
Of pain and grief. 

Let all that breathe proclaim 
And magnify the name 

We laud to-day ! 
L<et jealous rivals quake, 
Their gibes and jeers forsake, 
While grateful millions wake 

The gladsome lay. 

Great Master, now to thee 
And Homoeopathy 

Again we sing ! 
lyong may our homes be bright, 
With truth's protecting might, 
And health and sweet delight 

Its teachings bring ! 



OCCASIONAL, AND FRAGMKNTARY. 1 9 



V. 

MAUD MUIvLER (MEDICATED). 

(With due apologies to J. G. W.) 

Presented at the dinner of the Worcester Homoeop- 
athic Dispensary Association, May 18, 1894. 

A RUSTIC youth one summer day 
^~^ Was hoeing corn by the dusty way. 

His dreamy, schemeful brain was rife 
With countless plans for an easy life. 

Slowly he worked as though he meant 
To take his leisure as he went ; 

And when he dreamed in a pensive way 
Of pleasures that in cities lay, 

His muscles shrunk in their zeal for rest, 
And a nameless en?iut filled his breast — 



20 RANDOM RIMES. 

A longing, many a man has known, 
For an easier lot to call his own. 

A city doctor drove that way 

With a dashing span and a rich coupe. 

He drew a halt, when he saw the lad, — 
In a patronizing way he had — 

And asked for a spray of the iris blue 
Which just across the meadow grew. 

The flattered youngster hied away 

And soon came back wath a big bouquet ; 

Nor recked he of his father's frown 
For trampling half the meadow down. 

" Thanks, thanks," the doctor made reply, 
"You 've brought me here a year's supply. 

* ' How little you the value know 
Of plants that all around you grow ! 

' ' The ivy clinging to the trees ; 
The clover kissed by honey bees ; 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 21 

' ' The saffron growing by the mill ; 
The laurel blooming on the hill ; 

' ' The dandelions at your feet ; 
The buttercups, and bittersweet ; 

' ' The Indian hemp ; the black snake root ; 
The garget with its crimson fruit ; 

"The foxglove ; golden seal, and rue ; 
The gentian with its blossoms blue ; 

' ' The sumac, and the willow trees ; 
The hemlock drunk by Socrates ; 

' ' The pink root, and the pigeon wheat ; 
The leeks and onions that you eat ; 

' ' The club moss, and Saint John's- wort bright ; 
The cactus blooming in the night ; 

"The boneset, and the yellow dock ; 
The graceful fern with slender stalk ; 

"The bloodroot, and the poppy bold ; 
The mullein, and the marigold ; 



22 RANDOM RIMES. 

* * The clematis with trailing vine ; 
The golden-blossomed jessamine ; 

' * The skull-cap, and the cedar tree ; 
The nettle, and anemone ; 

' ' The purple meadow queen so tall ; 
And hazel blooming last of all. 

* * A thousand things your e3^es discern — 
You should, my lad, their uses learn." 

And the boy forgot his palm-leaf hat 
In listening to the doctor's chat ; 

And felt his soul expand and rise 
At the wonders opening to his eyes. 

At last, like one who fain would stay, 
The hurried doctor drove away. 

And the foolish youngster sighed, " Ah, me ! 
That I a doctor, too, might be ! 

" I 'd fix myself up mighty fine ; 
I 'd smoke cigars and sip my wine ; 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 23 

'* I 'd keep my fingers out of dirt 
And wear a diamond in my shirt ; 

' ' My driver should dress in the grandest style 
With a bearskin cape and a beaver tile ; 

* ' The office boy should know his place 
And wait my call with modest grace ; 

" My wife should have the choicest fruit, 
And the baby wear a ' Gertrude suit ; ' 

"I'd bleed the rich ; I'd feed the poor ; 
(And both'd be better off I'm sure.") 

The doctor turned as he climbed the hill 
And saw the youngster standing still : 

' * A better, heartier physique 
It were a vain attempt to seek ; 

' ' And everything about him there 
Is absolutely free from care. 

"Would I were he, instead, to-day, 
Of slaving round in fashion's way. 



24 RANDOM RIMES. 

' ' No listening to the hearts and lungs 
Of spleeny dames with endless tongues ; 

"But driving home the dreamy cows, 
Or hunting hens' nests on the mows." 

But he thought how the boys at the club would 

stare 
To see the hayseed in his hair ; 

So he turned his head and drove along 
And soon was lost in the distant throng. 

But his patients smiled in a curious way 
When he talked of nothing but farms next day. 

And the lad stood dreaming on his hoe 
Until it was time for the cows to go. 

The doctor's clientele were those 

Who judge of worth by style and clothes. 

Yet often when his gorgeous suite 
Was filled with the so-called elite. 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 25 

And he had listened to the string 
Of petty ailments they would bring, 

He'd language use I may not tell — 
And wish them every one in — health. 

Or when upon some luckless day 
He'd done a laparotomy, 

And just as he was through, perhaps, 
Off went the patient in collapse ; 

Or when at night he had undressed 
To seek his couch for needed rest, 

And hardly closed his eyes, to hear 
The night bell clanging in his ear ; 

He 'd quite forget his certain fee 
And sigh, " O would that I were free! 

' ' Free as the lad, I met one day, 
Hoeing corn by the dusty way. ' ' 

And the boy grew up like a love-sick swain 
With an aching heart and a blighted brain. 



26 RANDOM RIMES. 

He did his work in a listless style, 

As though it were hardly worth the while ; 

And oft when the summer sun was hot 

He would wipe his brow and bemoan his lot ; 

And think of the doctor that passed one day 
With his dashing span and his rich coupe \ 

And see again the iris blue, 

And a host of phantom plants review ; 

And think of the pains he might have relieved, 
And the countless gains he might have received, 

Till his laggard hoe to a lancet turned ; 
And the tasseled corn like gas lights burned ; 

And his dump-cart shone in their lurid blaze ; 
And his oxen pranced like the doctor's bays ; 

And himself a notable man he saw, 
Whose look was wisdom and whose word was 
law. 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 27 

Then he turned with a start to his hoe again 
And sadly murmured, '* It might have been." 

Alas, for doctor and foolish boy — 
For empty pomp and dull employ ! 

God pity them both, and pity us too 
When we pine for a work we never can do ; 

For of all the hardships under the sun, 
Each thinks his own is the hardest one ; 

And in every closet beneath the skies 
Is a skeleton hid from human eyes. 

Oh ! who would envy his neighbors, pray. 
If the masks were snatched from their souls 
away ? 



28 RANDOM RIMES. 



VI 

MOTHER'S BABY. 

Response at the annual dinner of the Worcester 
County Homceopathic Medical Society, November 
9, 1892. 

T^HE baby ! Bless his little soul— 
■^ We all have babies been — 
'Tis he alone who gains control 
Of house and all within. 
No tyrant king with golden crown 
Could so despotic be ; 
No monarch pass his sceptre down 
So certainly as he. 
And yet such evanescent reign 
Cannot be wholly bliss ; 
Which one of us would not complain 
To be a king like this ? 
Who would exchange his frosty pate 



OCCASIONAI. AND FRAGMKNTARY. 29 

And eyes with vision dim, 

And teeth, all fastened to a plate, 

And withered brow and limb, 

And through the corridors of time 

Be carried back to-day 

And start again life's steps to climb 

In nature's homely way? 

To be a babe, poor, helpless, dumb — 

Its trials now appear ; 

How few by invitation come 

To homes that wait them here ! 

What wonder that they always cry 

In uttermost despair ? 

They know, alas ! they know them nigh, — 

The tortures they must bear. 

For granny's spirit fairly glows 

With ardor to display 

The endless round of things she knows. 

Or has known, in her day ; 

And ere he is an hour old 

His little mouth she fills 

With all the messes it will hold, 

To antedate his ills. 



30 RANDOM RIMES. 

Perhaps the one who gave him birth 

His birthright may deny, 

And bid those fonts of priceless worth 

That flow for him, be dry. 

O mothers, who refuse to give 

Your helpless babes their due, 

'Tis only just that you should live 

To be neglected too ! 

Oh ! who would be a babe, I pray, 

In helplessness to lie. 

The merest waif on fortune's way 

Nor ken the reason why ? 

Perchance of all the things he sees 

Around on every side, 

He's given what the least would please, 

And what would most, denied ; 

He 's trotted when he wants to rest. 

And rested when he 'd trot ; 

When shivering with cold, undressed, 

And bundled up when hot ; 

He 's fed until he overflows 

And, when he cries with pain, 

At once the ready mixture goes 



OCCASIONAI. AND FRAGMENTARY. 3 1 

Into his mouth again. 

And when he really cries for food, 

No one his call can tell, 

He 's ill, the stupid parents think, 

And must be dosed a spell ; 

So down the soothing S3^rup goes. 

Or soporific pill ; 

How many babes — God only knows — 

Are sleeping from them still ! 

It makes me shudder to behold 

The nursing tubes we see, 

Whose use, for reasons manifold, 

Prohibited should be ; 

And patent foods of countless make, 

And sterilizers new. 

And artful schemes that undertake 

Maternal work to do. 

And so the mother gads about 

In fashion's giddy ways. 

And trusts her babe, when she is out, 

To Bridget, now-a-days. 

Oh ! who would be a babe, I pra}^ 



32 RANDOM RIMES. 

To cut his teeth again, 

And fret and drool and spew away, 

As all of us did then? 

Oh ! who can shake the horrors off. 

Which still in memory run, 

Of measles, mumps, and whooping-cough, 

That took us, one by one? 

And chicken-pox that left its pits 

Where'er its pustules spread, 

And stomach- worms that gave us fits, 

And scarlet- fever dread? 

Oh ! who would be a babe, I pray, 

If for no cause but this — 

To be a target in the wa}^ 

For every one to kiss? — 

For spinsters who have not been kissed 

Since they themselves were small, 

For filthy feeders who subsist 

On onions, tops and all. 

For faces scarred with every form 

Of loathsome skin disease, 

For breaths in which bacilli swarm 

Like maggots in a cheese, 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 33 

For lips befouled b}^ vile cigars, 

For bearded faces rough, 

For beldams rank with old catarrhs 

And nostrils filled with snuff ? 

Here shrivelled cheeks and toothless gtims 

Would fain their lives refresh, — 

Like Shy lock, from each babe that comes, 

They claim a ' ' pound of flesh. ' ' 

O Portia, clad with sovereign grace. 

Come with thy spirit, too. 

And teach the greedy ones their place 

And all to justice do. 

In closing let us change the song 
And touch a softer lay — 
These little ones we plainly wrong, 
What are they like, I pray ? 

Richest blessing from above 

Is this pledge of plighted love — 

Precious baby ! 

Like the curtains of the skies 
Are his wonder- lighted eyes — 

Blue-eyed baby ! 



34 RANDOM RIMES. 

Like the shifting showers of May 
Melt his gUstening tears away — 

Changeful baby ! 

Like the sunshine after rain 
All his smiles return again — 

Wondrous baby ! 

Like the sweetest bud that blows 
Is his little rounded nose — 

Charming baby ! 

Like the fragrant garden bloom 
Is his breath in rich perfume — 

Rarest baby ! 

Like a berry from the south 
Is his all-delicious mouth — 

Luscious baby ! 

Like a quintessential bliss 
Is the honey of his kiss — 

Sweetest baby ! 

Like the pearls that lie beneath 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 35 

Snowy billows are his teeth — 

Priceless baby ! 

Like the music of a bell 

Do his peals of laughter swell — 

Happy baby ! 

Irike the eddies of a stream 

All his rounded dimples gleam — 

Sparkling baby ! 

Like the moon's reflected light 
Beam his silken tresses bright — 

Beauteous baby ! 

Like a fledgeling in its nest 
Clings he to his mother's breast — 

Loving bab}" ! 

Like the Maker of us all 
Is the little soul we call — 

Mother's baby ! 



36 RANDOM RIMKS. 



VII. 

LINES TO A MICROBE. 

Read at a banquet of the Rhode Island Homoeop- 
athic Medical Society, Providence, Jan. lo, 1896. 

C PEAK, and tell us, O Bacillus ! 

^ Wherefore, wherefore, do you fill us 

With a terror that will kill us? 

And we cannot make it go ; 

For from fear of thee we falter 

Like a trembling lamb at slaughter, 

While the earth and air and water 

All your hateful presence know. 

What, O what was thy relation 

To the world at its creation, 

That in every tribe and nation 

You are lurking for your prey ? 

Were you with the race coeval? 

Did you see the great upheaval 

When the woman chose the evil 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 37 

And the mischief was to pay? 

Were you at that moment hidden 

Safe within the fruit forbidden 

That to death mankind you ' ve ridden 

Since that fatal afternoon? 

When the serpent's soft addresses 

Won our mother's first caresses, 

Did you know that your successes 

Would become assured so soon ? 

When with honeyed words he guyed her 

And the tempting fruit supplied her, 

How you packed your trunk inside her 

For a never ending lease ! 

And when Adam followed after, 

Then you split your sides with laughter, 

Wrote your wife, or telegraphed her. 

We have got a ' flat ' apiece." 

True it is, I now relate : 

What determined Adam's fate 

Was the germ by which of late 

Koch the Ger(m)-man made repute ; 

For it cannot be denied 

('Less you say the Scriptures lied), 

Adam of consumption died. 



38 RANDOM RIMES. 

Yes — consumption of the fruit. 
And the cause of his disaster 
Still increasing, fast and faster, 
I/ives to-day a dreaded master 
Ruling with a tyrant's sway ; 
Still it steals away our pleasures, 
Robs us of our choicest treasures 
Till a tithe of all it measures 
As its right, and lawful prey. 

What, Bacillus, was the start 

Of the antiseptic art? 

Was it needful, or a part 

Of the doctor's coup d'etat? 

If one-half we hear about it 

Now be true — and who can doubt it- 

How could Eve have done without it 

On her parturition day? 

Was it lactopreparata 
Fed to Cain that made him smarter 
Than the sweet and gentle martyr 
Who was reared in nature's way? 
And because his food one night 



OCCASIONAI^ AND FRAGMENTARY. 39 

Was not sterilized aright 

Did the ptomaines make him fight 

And his only brother slay? 

What about the sanitation 
In the ark, for all creation, 
With no proper ventilation 
That the sacred records show? 
Why did not typhoid fever 
Gain an entrance there and leave her 
Deader than the rats beneath her, 
' Drowned rats ' ' of long ago ? 

Mighty Naaman of old 
Left his leprosy, we're told, 
In the swells of Jordan cold 
As its turbid waves rolled by ; 
Left it, but he little knew 
That his malady was due 
To a parasite we view 
With a microscopic eye. 

And Gehazi did not see 
When he stole the leper's fee 



40 RANDOM RIMKS. 

That it should aseptic be 

Ere he carried it away. 

Had he done so, who can tell, 

But the curse that on him fell, 

Might have left him safe and well 

Like the rascals of to-day? 

But I have not time to tell 
Half the germs that in us dwell ; 

How we wish them all in well. 

Where the wicked germs should be. 

Micrococci round and small, 

Rods which we bacilli call, 

Vibriones one and all. 

Spirilla, spirochaetse, 

Cholera, pyaemia, 

Anthrax, septicaemia, 

Pediculi and taenia. 

We do not want you round ! 

Athrospore and endospore, 

Sarcinae and protozoa. 

Trichinae, hide yourselves no more ! 

Hydatids, you are found ! 

Leave at once and leave us wholly 



OCCASIONAIv AND FRAGMENTARY. 4 1 

To ourselves amoeba coli, 
We were not created solely 
For a nesting place for thee ! 
And each other plague the same, 
Though we may not know your name, 
Get you back from whence you came, 
Let us suffering mortals be ! 

Oh, how hopeless is the fight 
With a viewless parasite ! 
We may put a host to flight 
On the tented field, 
But when demons in the air. 
Food we eat, and clothes we wear, 
Prey upon us everywhere. 
What can we but yield ? 



42 RANDOM RIMES. 



VIII. 
THE DESSERT. 

On presenting a bouquet to a medical friend, 
March 17, 1890. 

TN daj^s of old, 

^ As we are told, 
The hero brave and true 

Was decked in sheen 

Of living green 
In proof of honors due ; 

And maidens fair 

Entwined his hair 
With garlands deftly made, 

And king and queen 

With gracious mien 
Their royal homage paid. 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMKNTARY. 43 

But we, to-night, 

Have naught to write 
Of battles lost and won ; 

We celebrate 

Our native State, 
And toast her worthy son. 

'Tis well to praise 

In rhythmic lays 
The hero o'er and o'er 

Who dares to fight 

For home and right 
And drench his hands in gore ; 

But better far 

Than war's hurrah 
And cannon, smoke and blood. 

Is skill to calm 

A dread alarm 
And staunch life's crimson flood. 

'Tis surely more 
To health restore. 
Bring back a single one, 



44 RANDOM RIMKS. 

Than win a fight 
With dynamite, 
Or man a murderous gun. 

Nor has he less 

Of manliness, 
Courage and valor too. 

Who hazards life 

In daily strife 
With death and dangers true, 

Than he who bears 

A flag — and wears 
A uniform of blue, — 

Who bears it high 

With flashing eye 
Relentless death to woo. 

Then loud huzzas 

For sons of Mars, 
For every soldier brave. 

But louder still 

For him whose will 
And mission is to save. 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMKNTARY. 45 

But, Doctor dear, 

We are not here 
To laud your craft or skill, 

Though truly all 

Within my call 
Would do so with a will. 

But, if you please, 

For courtesies, 
For kind and thoughtful aid. 

And for your share 

Of toil and care 
And generous efforts made, 

We wish to show 

You that we know 
And thank you for them all ; 

In proof we bring 

This offering, 
Which, please accept, though small. 

These leaves will fall, 
These petals all 
Will wither and decay, 



46 RANDOM RIMES. 

But time uor space 
Can e'er efface 
The message they convey. 

No words can tell 

Our thought so well, 
No picture can portray, 

E'en music sweet 

Is not more meet 
To voice the soul, than they. 

They represent 

The sentiment 
We all would gladly pay — 

Ay, more, — suggest 

Our very' best 
Regards for you to-day. 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 47 



IX. 

NOSTALGIA. 

(homesickness.) 

r^ STRANGE, O most mysterious disease 
^-^ That lay est hold upon the heart of man , — 
La Grippe of soul from Isles of Discontent, 
For whose attacks there remedy is none ! 
What scientist can trace thy secrets out, 
Or grow thy germs within a culture tube ? 
What microscope can magnify thy parts 
To meet the feeble ken of mortal eye? 
What tactile sense in cunning fingers hid 
Can note the change a soul in grief may feel? 
And yet in every clime thou dost appear 
And like a fiend incarnate workest woe ! 
At thy approach each vital function fails 
And ills in countless number throng thy wake. 



48 RANDOM RIMKS. 

Childhood recoils in tears at thy chill touch, 
The mother-breast is filled with yearnings 

strange, 
The father-heart in silence suffers on, 
While hoary age, aweary with the world, 
lyocks upward to the land beyond the skies 
And longs to find a rest — to be at home ! 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 49 



X. 



SONS OF HAHNEMANN. 

Read at the annual dinner of the Worcester Coun- 
ty Homoeopathic Medical Society, Worcester Mass., 
November 8, 1893. 

I. 

T WISH I might bring you the song you in- 

■*■ vite, 

But really don't see how I can ; 

The fastidious muse 

Is so sure to refuse 
The suit of a medical man. 

She likes men of leisure, of culture, and means, 
The litterateurs and their clan ; 

But her shoulders she shrugs 

At the odor of drugs 
That clings to the medical man. 

4 



50 RANDOM RIMKS. 

She dotes upon diadems, banners, and swords 
A-gleam on the front of the van ; 

But chill are the glances 

She casts at the lances 
And probes of the medical man. 

She 's a lover of music in mountain, or sea, 
Cathedral, or gilded divan ; 

But she shrinks from the moanings 

The shrieks, and the groanings, 
That surge round the medical man. 

For she loves only pleasure, and so has defied 
The doctor her footsteps to lure; 

He has nothing to share 

But interminate care, 
And his night- bell she 'd never endure. 

''But she smiled on a Holland, and Holmes," 

do you say? 
Well — now let me tell you, the fact is 

She smiled upon neither, 

Nor listened to either. 
Till he'd said a good-bye to his practice. 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 5 1 

And since 't is her way to make such display 
Of abhorrence for doctors about her, 

Let us try for awhile 

The chagrin to beguile, 
And get on to-day, friends, without her. 

II. 

We are the sons of Hahnemann, 

And of Hippocrates ; 

We boast a royal heritage 

Alike from both of these ; 

We brook no limit to the means 

We use to heal disease ; 

For we are the sons of Hahnemann, 

And of Hippocrates. 

No grander line of heraldry 

Was ever known to man ; 

For with Apollo's noblest son 

Our lineage began. 

Apollo's son, 

On Pelion, 

In Chiron's mystic cave, 

With all the gods in council met. 



52 RANDOM RIMES. 

And planned the art to save. 

And since that glad auspicious day, 

Physicians of renown 

From age to age the priceless boon 

To us have handed down. 

Their deeds are written everywhere 

The thought of man is rife — 

In earth, in ocean, and in air. 

And every form of life. 

Our very frames, 

With deathless names 

On tablets fit, are stored. 

From great Herophilus's press 

Down to Achilles' cord. 

We own them all, the glorious host, 

Despite their schools and sects, — 

Our Mortons, Harveys, Jenners, Kochs, 

Our Listers and Laennecs ; 

We rise above each petty feud 

Our better natures ban, 

And claim a royal brotherhood 

With every worthy man. 

To any one 

Who well has done 



OCCASIONAI, AND FRAGMl^NTARY. 53 

We '11 honor not refuse, 

From Celsus down to Sydenham, 

From Sydenham to Hughes. 

And here we raise 

A song of praise 

To all who heal disease ; 

For they are kin to Hahnemann, 

And to Hippocrates. 

Great Nature was their mother, 

Their teacher, and their friend ; 

And we upon no other 

Authority depend. 

Books writ by men 

Of cunning pen 

'Tis ours to compare 

With her great book, and disregard 

All found unwritten there. 

It is ours to seek the relation 

Of life to her changeless plan, 

And apply the interpretation 

Of her laws to the weal of man. 

To ask of the winds of heaven : 

* * What secrets have ye to tell 



54 RANDOM RIMES. 

Of the climes of earth ye have traversed, 

Of ocean, or mount, or dell, 

Of forest, or fen, or fountain, 

That can make our brothers well ? ' ' 

To say to the rocks beneath us. 

The sea, and the mountain ore : 

' * What treasures can ye bequeath us, 

From your exhaustless store. 

What mystical powers of matter, 

O tell us, we implore. 

That may bring a balm to sickness. 

And strength to the weak restore ? ' ' 

To question the herbs and grasses. 

That in the mould have birth. 

And the trees, and vines, and mosses 

That drink of the milk of earth : 

''What anodynes, what tonics, 

Have your alembics now 

That may strength impart 

To a fainting heart, 

Or quiet a fevered brow ? ' ' 

To call to the myriad creatures 

That throng the land and sea, 

And the very air above us : 



OCCASIONAI. AND FRAGMENTARY. 55 

' ' What medicines have ye 

From the elements selected 

That may of service be 

In bringing relief 

To the pain and grief 

Of frail humanity ? ' ' 

Then to the mind immortal 

'Tis ours to make appeal, 

That the touch of the spirit's sceptre 

Defects of the flesh may heal : 

"Ye forces within and around us, 

Mysteriously given. 

Intangible, invisible, 

Invincible as Heaven, — 

Say, what can ye do for a soul distraught, 

For a system of nen^es unstrung. 

For a heart oppressed, or a brain o'er- wrought, 

Or a body with anguish wrung — 

Say, what can ye do where strength is naught, 

And hope to the winds is flung ? ' ' 

Thus do we question Nature, 

Question, at every turn, 

While she, with marvelous patience. 



56 RANDOM RIMKS. 

Still bids us strive and learn ; 

For oh ! she is kind to her children, 

And, if we could only know, 

She holds a relief 

For every grief 

And a balm for every woe. 

If only we knew the secrets 

That lurk in her hidden power, 

We could baffle death 

Till the latest breath 

Of age's frosty hour ; 

And then, as fall the autumn leaves, 

Or petals of the rose, 

Mankind content 

With days full-spent 

Would welcome death's repose. 

But we are only children 

Gathered around the knees 

Of Nature — wondrous teacher ! — 

Conning our A, B, C's, 

And now she bids us onward 

To grander things than these ; 

For we are the sons of Hahnemann, 

And of Hippocrates. 



OCCASIONAI. AND FRAGMENTARY. 57 

Ah ! woe to him who rests secure 

In a little knowledge gained, 

Who heeds not the fathomless height and depth, 

Who heeds not the measureless length and 

breadth 
Of the vast and unattained ! 
And woe, if we 
Content should be 
With the trifles we comprehend ; 
Since life, with all that one can see 
Of* its stupendous mysterj^ — 
Of things that are, and things to be — 
Is ours to defend. 
Ours its two great portals 
Swinging to chime, and knell — 
Ours, the primal welcome ; 
Ours, the last farewell ! 



III. 



O the changes man will see 
When Truth shall come ! 
Doctors then will all agree, 
Nurses teachable will be, 



58 RANDOM RIMES. 

Patients uncomplainingly 
Bide whate'er the fates decree. 

There will be no selfish scheming 

When Truth shall come. 

There will be no fruitless dreaming, 

No seductive empty seeming, 

No deceit, nor disesteeming. 

When Truth shall come. 

Theories the wisps may take 

When Truth shall come. 
Facts will base of action make, 
Facts — however tenets shake. 
Thrones decline, or altars break — 
Men will hold and ne'er forsake 

When Truth shall come. 

Wisdom, purity, and love. 
Every link of thought will prove, 
Every line of conduct move. 
As within the home above. 
When Truth shall come. 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 59 

And she's coming. E'en now, lo ! 
Yonder skies begin to glow. 
Nay, 'tis not the boreal light 
Streaming from its arctic height, 
That were not so clear and white. 
List ! O list ! A song ! A song 
Thrills the track she sweeps along, 
lyist ! The voice doth seem to say : 
"Sons of earth, prepare the way, 

I come ! 
Wreathe the laurel ! Bind the bay ! 

I come ! I come ! 
From the heights of peace supernal, 
From the throne of the Eternal, 
Downward where the earth's diurnal 
Darkling walk is called a da}^ — 
Where a people grope in darkness. 
Grope, and call their darkness day — 

Eo, I come ! 
And my progress none can stay ; 
Haste, O earth ! Prepare the wa)^, 

I come ! I come ! 



6o RANDOM RIMES. 

' ' O the urgence of the flight 

As I come — 
From the empyrean height, 
Out of radiance into night, 

Swiftly come ! 
Downward, downward now I fly, 
Thinking soon I shall descry 

In the gloom, 
Shadowings of that nether sky ; 
And ten thousand voices cry 
Out of realms I'm sweeping by, 
' Ho ! The dawn ! The day is nigh ! 

Light is come ! ' 

** Yonder ether's mazy beach 

Marks the bound man's thought may reach 

Haste my song ! 
For that proves his planet near ; 
Star and sun will soon appear. 
Then a noisome atmosphere 

And narrow dome. 
Haste, O haste ! my flight, my song — 
Karth has waited now too long — 
Reign of Error ! Reign of Wrong ! ' 

I come ! I come ! ' ' 



OCCASIONAIv AND FRAGMKNTARY. 6 1 



XI. 
OUR BANNER. 

Sung by the Grammar School children of Monson, 
Mass., at the dedication of their flag, October 22, 
1892. 

nrmS shall be our song to-day — 
•'■ Our banner, the banner of freedom ! 

This the note we '11 waft away — 
Our banner, the banner of freedom ! 

Wake the music now and sing 

Till the answering echoes ring, 

As unto the breeze we fling 
Our banner, the banner of freedom ! 

Take it, ye glad winds of heaven — 
Our banner, the banner of freedom ! 

To your hands is rightly given 
Our banner, the banner of freedom ! 



62 RANDOM RIMKS. 

And proclaim where'er ye fly, 
'Neath the all-resounding sky, 
That ye bear with pride on high 
Our banner, the banner of freedom ! 

Greet it first, O sun, at morn — 
Our banner, the banner of freedom ! 

And let thy last rays adorn 
Our banner, the banner of freedom ! 
And ye stars that nightly rove 
The cerulean plains above, 
Guard these sister stars we love — 
Our banner, the banner of freedom ! 

Hail ! Ay, we will ever hail 
Our banner, the banner of freedom ! 

O'er our grandest efforts nail 
Our banner, the banner of freedom ! 
'Tis the flag our fathers brave 
Fought on many a field to save, 
Gallant flag ! forever wave — 
Our banner, the banner of freedom ! 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 63 



XII. 

OUR NATIVE STATE. 

Read at the Decennial Reunion of the New Hamp- 
shire Association, Worcester, Mass., February 12, 
1889. 

SONS and Daughters of New Hampshire, 
We are gathered here to show 
Homage to a common birthplace 
And the days of long ago. 
We were born where rugged mountains 
In stupendous grandeur stand, 
Taught the lessons of our childhood 
From the book of nature grand. 
So to-night we wander backward, 
Through the scenes of youth elate, 
To repeat the matchless glories 
Of the grand old Granite State. 



64 RANDOM RIMES. 

Others may have greener pastures, 
Broader wheat-fields, richer mines, 
Valleys decked in orange blossoms. 
Hillsides twined with budding vines ; 
For the pride of old New Hampshire, 
And the products of her ground. 
Are not corn and coal and cattle, 
Which in every State abound. 
But each rocky farm and hillside 
Is producing o'er and o'er 
Crops of noble men and women 
Nothing less, and — little more ! 

So, if I should ask the question. 
Which upon the streets is trite, 
"What 's the matter with New Hampshire ? 
You would tell me, " She 's all right. ' ' 
And she is. From every quarter 
Comes the proof of what I write — 
From her narrow belt of ocean. 
From her mountains capped in white, 
From the sacred spot where Webster 
First beheld the morning light, 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 65 

Comes the answer, comes the echo, 
' Old New Hampshire is all right." 

Where are found such scenes of grandeur ? 
I^ook upon Franconia's height ; 
See the "Old Man of the Mountains " 
Standing there in silent might, 
Minding not the heat of summer, 
Caring not for winter's night — 
Symbol of New Hampshire's greatness ; 
Yes, ' ' New Hampshire is all right. ' ' 

Glad am I of such a birthplace, 
Proud am I of such a state, 
Rome upon her hills of glory 
Never was more truly great. 
Never Roman more exultant 
O'er the spot that gave him birth. 
Than am I that in New Hampshire 
First I saw the light of earth. 
And each rolling year increases 
My devotion to that land. 
Tints the memories of childhood 
With a beauty truly grand, 
5 



66 RANDOM RIMES. 

Till the halls of recollection 
A full gallery appear, 
And no picture there so precious 
As thine own, New Hampshire dear. 
O New Hampshire, we extol thee ! 
Grandest, noblest, dearest State ; 
Well may all thy children call thee 
Queen among the thirty-eight ! 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMKNTARY. 67 



XIII. 

ODE. 

Sung at a dinner of The Sons and Daughters of 
New Hampshire, Worcester, Mass., February 11, 
1892. 

TTHOUGH forth from the home of our youth 
*^ we may wander, 

Far, far from the haunts of its innocent glee, 
Though hopes we may shatter, and precious 

years squander, 
O Mother, New Hampshire! we'll still think 
of thee ; 
Of thee, Old New Hampshire ! 
We '11 still think of thee. 

But should a kind Providence bless each en- 
deavor, 
And prosper our labors on land and on sea, 



68 RANDOM RIMES. 

No lurements of riches or kindred shall sever 
Our hearts' best affection, New Hampshire, 
from thee ; 

From thee, Old New Hampshire ! 

New Hampshire, from thee. 

Home, home is the spot that we first loved and 

cherished. 
The place of our childhood, where'er it may be ; 
O tell us. no never, that first love has perished ; 
New Hampshire, our first love, our home is with 
thee; 
With thee, Old New Hampshire ! 
Our home is with thee. 

As the heights first illumed by the sun in the 

morning 
Catch his last loving look as he sinks in the lea, 
So our hearts fondly turn at the chill of death's 
warning 
To thee, O New Hampshire ! 
To slumber with thee; 
With thee. Old New Hampshire ! 
New Hampshire, with thee ! 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 69 



XIV. 

AN INTERIvUDE. 

Read at a reunion of the students of Francestown 
Academy, August 19, 1896. 

HOW like a panorama now we see 
Familiar things of youth and long ago, 
No later pictures bring to you or me 
Such wondrous tints as those we used to know. 
No hills so grand as youthful fancies paint ; 
No skies so fair as youth's cerulean blue ; 
No hearts so free from murmurous complaint ; 
No gems so bright as morning's sparkhng dew ! 

So turn the dingy dial back 

Upon the clock, I say ; 

What's twenty years when past and gone? 

We all are young to-day. 
Yes, drop the irksome, thankless tasks 



70 RANDOM RIMBS. 

That crowd life's weary way, 

And breathe again the morning air — 

We all are young to-da}'-. 
Perhaps a few, a thoughtless few. 
Have wandered far astray — 
This joyful feast is spread for you, 

You're welcome back to-day. 
And some there are, full well I know. 
Could titles proud display; 
Who cares for jots and titles here. 

We're Jack and Joe to-day. 
So lay aside your common cant, 
Ye clergymen, I pray ; 
You know we know as much as you, 

Don't preach to us to-day. 
And lawyers' drop your bags of green, 
This court decrees you may ; 
We're sitting now upon the bench, 

Don't argue here to-day. 
And teachers, put your models, blocks. 
And musty books away, 
Come, see these " living pictures " here, 

We 're works of art to-day. 
And you electric- wire fiends. 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 7 1 

That with the lightnings play — 
Don't shock our unsuspecting souls 

With any " cells " to-day. 
And farmers dear, we hope at least 
You 've made the business pay, 
But don't pervert this sacred feast 

With ' ' phosphates ' ' here to-day. 
And business men, as well beware ! 
" The times are hard," you sa5^ 
The " gold-bug " beats the empty air. 

Don't talk finance to-day. 
And spinsters fair and free forget 
Your wheels and bloomers gay, 
The winsome leap-year lingers yet — 

There 's hope for you to-day. 
And mothers with your downy broods 
Of little ones at play — 
Don't talk of countless patent foods 

And baby clothes to-day. 
And doctors, take the gentle dose 
To others you convey — 
Don't smirk around for patients here, 

We all are well to-day. 
Yes, teachers dear and schoolmates all, 



72 RANDOM RIMES. 

The piercing Roentgeyi ray 
Shows every throbbing heart in place, 
We all are young to-day. 

O what is life ? To be a babe 

Upon a mother's breast 

Content with simplest wants supplied, 

To breathe, to feed, to rest. 

And then, a child with curious touch 

And eager wondering e3'es 

That seeks to solve the bit of world 

Which round about it lies. 

And then, a little one at school 

With books and to3'S a store 

Who feels within an easy reach 

The sum of human lore. 

And then, a dreamful gushing youth 

Whose conscious blush betrays 

The golden thread of love that runs 

Throughout life's tangled maze. 

And then, the husband, or the bride, 

By sweet illusion blest, 

Each to the other's life allied 

Divinest, dearest, best. 



OCCASIONAI. AND FRAGMENTARY. 73 

And then, the father, mother- heart 

One joyful burden bear. 

To guard and keep the precious trust 

Committed to their care. 

And then — perhaps a tiny grave. 

Perhaps the mourning mate 

Of one whose light went out at noon 

And left day desolate. 

Perhaps the sheens of summer wear 

The blight of autumn now, 

And lines of sorrow and of care 

Have aged the youthful brow. 

And when we think of pleasure 

The mind instinctive turns 

To youth's enchanted gardens 

Where still its altar burns ; 

And memories like incense 

Fill all that sacred spot — 

Entranced we stand in silence, 

The present lost in thought. 

And what's ahead? We know not, 

We cannot even see 

The pathway down life's sure decline 



74 RANDOM RIMKS. 

Unto the western lea. 

And what about the country 

Beyond the vsunset gates, 

Whose gHmmers tint with glory 

The cloud that overwaits ? 

We know not yet. We know not ; 

But who can now unfold 

The mystery of life to which 

We cling with frantic hold? 

Who knows the subtle essence 

Of vital forms we meet ? 

And yet to all creation 

This mystery is sweet. 

And so, perhaps, in some way, 

Though only God knows how. 

The mystery of death may be 

As sweet as living now ; 

Or may be the Creator 

For us has deemed it best 

To crown his benefactions 

With an eternal rest. 

Instinctively we reason, 

Since life to all is sweet. 

The state toward which we journey 



OCCASION AI. AND FRAGMKNTARY. 75 

Must be a sequence meet. 
And so, we wait in silence, 
Nor seek to know our lot, 
Content to trust the future 
With Him who changeth not. 

My task is done. The curtain drops. 

Turn on the lights, I pray, 

Let each assume his wonted role 

Before we leave to-day. 

We 've played our parts so many years 

We somehow seem to be 

Grown into them till each has lost 

His own identity. 

Of course it seems the veriest farce 

That lads we used to know 

Should go parading round the world 

A-duping people so. 

That some should play at farming. 

And some at keeping store; 

That some should pound the anvil. 

And some should smelt the ore; 

That some should fill prescriptions, 

And some should run our mills. 



76 RANDOM RIMES. 

And some insure our houses, 

And some should peddle pills; 

That some should fire engines, 

And some report the news, 

And some should stand in pulpits, 

And some in teacher's shoes; 

That some should play with lightnings, 

And some with dental drills; 

That some should probe our vitals. 

And some should probate wills; 

That some should sample products 

And carry them around,. 

And some embalm our bodies 

And lay them in the ground. 

And girls ! you can't be mothers ! 

But, when I take a view 

Of faces pressed against your own, 

I rather think '.tis true. 

And boys, just watch the little lads 

Who strut around at play 

With all the airs you once possessed — " 

Where did they get them, pray ? 

Yes, blood will tell. You can't deny 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMKNTARY. 77 

Your children if you would, 

You know the pride a father feels, 

The joy of motherhood. 

You know the truth. Life is no dream. 

The miracle of birth 

Is still a part of Nature's plan 

To carry on the earth. 

And so to some the sacred tie 

Of parentage is given, 

And so the home embodies all 

Our fondest hopes of Heaven. 

What is life's end, but labor? 

Success, but duty done? 

Religion, but forgetfulness 

Of self for every one? 

What's serving God, but serving man? 

And faith, but courage true? 

And prayer, but firm endeavor 

With noble ends in view ? 

What 's living long, but living well? 

Death, but transition meet? 

And heaven, but the sure reward 

That crowns a life complete? 



78 RANDOM RIMES. 

And now a sudden change comes o'er 

The doubting of my dreams, 

Between two mystic worlds I stand 

Nor either real seems ; 

The one contains a struggling group, 

As now I see you here. 

With faces lined with sorrow, care. 

And many an anxious fear ; 

While just upon the other side 

Of a mysterious gate. 

Another shadowy group I see 

In rapt attention wait. 

With noiseless step they move about, 

As phantoms come and go, 

And here and there amid the throng 

Are faces that we know. 

They listen to our welcomes glad, 

They watch our greetings here 

And with the sympathy of love 

Are pressing strangely near. 

And see ! As each of us completes 

The work he has to do, 

The mystic gate in silence opes 

And gives an entrance through. 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 79 

And so, ere long, we, one by one. 
Shall lay our tasks away 
To join that other joyous band 
In gladsome holiday. 



80 RANDOM RIMKS. 



XV. 

PAT'S PHII.OSOPHY. 

/^CH ! Kate, be yezcroyin? Phwat, ** Don't 
^^ want ter live ? ' ' 

Begorree ! I niver see sich 
A crathur as yez be. A man kin not tell 

Frim yer laugh an yer cry, which is which. 
Uv course by an by we mus all uv us die, 

But ye'd betther live on while ye kin ; 
For if ye should sthay till yer swate hair is gray. 

Ye '11 be dead long enough, darlint, thin — 
Yis, long enough dead, darlint, thin ! 

An shure yez be toired a-worruckin roun, 

The young uns do bother ye so ; 
But there 's no nater brats in the worrld to be 
foun 

Thin yer own, as ye virry will know ; 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENT ARY. 8 1 

An 3^e can't over noight lave one outen yer 
soight, 

Nor thrust him ter comb his own hair, 
Soye'dbetther take keer, an sthay awhile here, 

There '11 be toime enough thin over there, 
Katie dear, yis, plenty er toime over there ! 

It 's an illigant place on the hill, as ye say, 

Wid the crosses a-glamin so white, 
An the paple a-comin wid posies all day, 

An the whip-poor-wills callin at night ; 
But phwat'lljF^ care for the illigance there 

When ye 're shlapin as hard as a bame, 
An meself cannot take ye an shake ye an 
wake ye, 

In case ye should have a bad drame, 
Honey dear, in case ye should have a bad drame ? 

It's maybe yez thinkin about the foine ride 

Ye '11 be havin' wid coupe and span, 
Yerself housened up like a princess inside. 

An on top er the kirridge a man ! 
But I'll ax ye, dear Kate, if ye'd betther not 
wait 
6 



82 RANDOM RIMES. 

A wee bit afore sthartin the show ? 
Ye kin ride in that hack (faith! an 't won't 
fetch ye back) 

Whin there's no ither waj^ ye kin go, 
Little pet, not one ither way ye kin go ! 

Be jabbers, ye 'd betther be aisey awhile. 

An settle down wid us an sthay, 

Or Mary an Moike an the nabors will shmile 

Fer the wake they '11 be havin that day ! 
Besoides, ye don't know jist where 3^e might 
go— 

Ye 're fergittin the mate ye ate Lint — 
An ye can't shtan the shmell uv a match — 
very well, 

So phwat would ye do if ye wint, 
Darlint, say, phwat would ye do if ye wint? 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 83 



O 



XVI. 

THE OLD BACH. 

LUCKY is he, 
So jolly and free, 
Who never was ruled by a wife : 
He lives at his ease, 
Has no one to please, 
Is careless and happy through life. 

No babies to hold. 

No beldam to scold. 
No servants to bother around ; 

He pays for his fare. 

Escapes from its care ; 
The happiest man to be found ! 

He plays the guitar. 
He smokes his cigar 



34 RANDOM RIMKS. 

With feet on the back of a chair ; 
Throws hat on the floor, 
Ivcaves open the door, 

Tracks mud on the carpeted stair. 



. He goes to the play, 
And stops by the way. 

To take a hand round with a friend 
Reels homeward at night, 
And sings with delight, 

I 've no jealous wife to offend! " 



( ( 



For dresses and strings, 

And bonnets and rings. 
No taxes are laid on his purse ; 

No mother-in-law 

To fill him with awe 
And make his calamities worse. 

Too valiant and brave 

To live as a slave. 
All wiles of the siren he ' 11 scorn ; 

For love is a bane, 

And marriage a chain, 
And husbands are — idiots born ! 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMKNTARY. 85 

MORAL. 

Young lovers, beware, 

Consider with care, 
Before you determine to wed ; 

Lest blinded by Fate 

You sorrow too late — 
Here 's a tip for you boys — look ahead. 

New York, 1881. 



86 RANDOM RIMKS. 



XVII. 

THE SEKRIT UV SUKCES. 

Yer agoin out in the world, my boy, 

So lissen a bit ter me, 
I '11 tell ye a rool that '11 help ye more 

Than enny ye iver see — 
I kant remember the words exact, 

But this is the since uv it, Jim, — 
What ye wmit uv a feller ter du fur you 

You ^ve gut fur ter du fur him. 

If iver ye 'd borrer, ye 've gut to lend 

With an open hand and free ; 
If ye 'd be befriended, ye must befriend 

Wheniver the chance may be ; 
For I tell ye naow, whereiver ye go — 

It's tru az the gospel, Jim — 
If ye want a feller ter kotnerdate you 

You 've gut ter komerdate him. 



OCCASION AIv AND FRAGMENTARY. 87 

Speak wel as ye kan uv yer feller man, 

Or else du not speak at all ; 
Don't think yer own varchews air oUus grate 

An hizzen air ollus small ; 
It don't kost nothin ter say a good word, 

An peple all like it, Jim ; 
If you want a feller ter speak wel uv you, 

Yo2i 've gut ter speak wel uv him. 

In evry man's hart there's a tender spot, 

An so, if ye want ter win im. 
Jest giv it a poke with a word uv praise, 

An dont say a thing agin im ; 
No matter how little he liked ye wonst, 

Yer jedgment will please him, Jim, 
If ye wa?it a feller ter presheate you, 

You 've gut ter presheate him. 

Be tru ter the ones that konfide in you, 

At evry time an place ; 
An don't say a thing behind a man's back, 

Ye wouldn't afore his face ; 
When friends have forsook ye, an slander's tung 

Is pinted agin ye, Jim, 



88 RANDOM RIMES. 

If ye want a feller ter be tru ter you. 
You've gut ter be tru ter him. 

There's no use a-livin onles ye have friends, 

For ye kant git on without um ; 
An the number ye have, on yerself depends 

An how ye behave about um ; 
If ye want ter be happy an prosprus tu, 

I'll give ye the sekrit, Jim, — 
What ye want uv a feller ter du fur you 

Stan reddy fur ter du fur him. 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMENTARY. 89 



XVIII. 

CIvEOPATRA'S NEEDLE. 

Placed in Central Park, New York, January 22, 
1881. 

'T^IS done. The toilsome task is now com- 

* plete. 

The rule of mind o'er matter stands approved. 
Egypt, the storehouse of the ancient world, 
The source of wisdom and the home of art, 
Hath basely bartered off this priceless gem 
To deck Columbia's brow. 

O Egypt fair ! 
No clouds obscure thy face from heavenlj^ light ; 
Thy breast is bathed with waters from afar, 
And from its grateful surface springs the palm, 
While seas of golden grain wave in thy breath, — 
How couldst thou lie supinely in repose 



90 RANDOM RIMES. 

When alien hands were tearing from thy heart 
This sacred stone? 

O grand, majestic Nile ! 
The arid sands thy royal fullness drink 
And lo, a garden springeth into view ; 
Fair on thy either bank the flowers stoop 
To kiss their own reflection from below, — 
O stricken Nile, was it for this that thou 
Didst leave the grandeur of thy mountain home, 
Th}^ lonely pathway wending to the deep, 
To see this milestone, which for ages long 
Had cheered thee on with salutations glad, 
Snatched rudely from thy side? 

O Cleopatra, 
Of Egypt's rulers lovliest and last ! 
By thee Rome's leader was a captive led 
And gave his life to share thy hapless fate. 
Thy kingdom is forever lost to thee ; 
And all thy noble lineage is dust. 
But now this monolith with quaint designs. 
Unknown to us, but known and read by thee, 
Stands safely guarded by thy jealous eye. 
Thou didst preserve it from a watery grave, 
Thyself directing at the helm the ship, 



OCCASIONAL AND FRAGMKNTARY. 9 1 

The gallant ship, that brought it safe to land. 
Still guard, O Spirit Queen, thy treasure hence, 
Should e'er Columbia, like Egypt, prove 
Unworthy of thy trust. 

New York, January 23, 1881. 



92 RANDOM RIMES. 

XIX. 

THE PENNY-POST. 

r\ PEACEFUL knight of modern birth, 
^-^ With weight of mail and coat of gray, 
How little can you know the worth 

Of all the matter you convey! 
The printed paper, early sent. 

With hasty glance we throw away. 
And yet its columns represent 

The toil of many ever}^ day. 
The countless advertisements too, 

That in our refuse basket lay. 
Were written with an end in view 

And cost — well, let the printers say. 
The hasty scrawl upon a card, 

Which tidings brings from far away. 
Is dearer than the wisest bard 

To waiters anxious from delay. 

Those billets-doux may volumes mean, 



OCCASIONAI. AND FRAGMENTARY. 93 

Though not a word of love they sa}^ ; 
For safe between the Hnes, I ween, 

No tender message goes astray. 
The budding poet sends his rhymes 

For classic journals to display ; 
You bring them back — as many times — 
"Returned with thanks " is all they say. 
And now an invitation neat 

To wedding, social or soirSe ; 
Perchance a bill we pledged to meet 

But small the chance for checks to pay. 
Anon a letter draped in black 

Brings news of one that's gone for aye, — 
Good postman, take the message back ! 

My eyes are dim, — O read it, pray ! 

With throbbing hearts we welcome thee, 

O somber knight in suit of gray ! 
Thy service, though it simple be. 

Doth half the sum of life outweigh. 
And so we ever watch and wait. 

With curious haste each post survey. 
Till Death appears before the gate 

With summons brief — and we obey. 



94 RANDOM RIMKS. 



XX. 

BKLSHAZZAR. 

(From the German of Heine.) 

T^HK midnight hour is drawing on ; 
In calm repose hes Babylon, 

Save from the castle of the king 
Comes forth the din of rioting, 

For in that gorgeous palace hall 
Belshazzar holds high festival. 

His courtiers there in glittering lines 
Applaud and quaff their sparkling wines. 

And glasses clink, and nobles sing, 
In adulation to the king. 



OCCASIONAI. AND FRAGMENTARY. 95 

And as the wine more freel^^ flows 
His face with fiery passion glows, 

Until, by pride and madness driven, 
He dares revile the Lord of heaven. 

And, midst his menials' wild acclaim, 
Boldly blasphemes Jehovah's name. 

Obedient to the haughty king, 
His serv^ants forth the vessels bring 

Of gold and silver richly wrought, 
Aforetime from God's temple brought. 

With wanton hand he snatches him 
A holy cup filled to the brim ; 

And dashing it upon the hearth. 
Cries out in loud, imperious wrath, 

"Jehovah's mandates I defy — 
The king of Babylon am I ! " 



96 RANDOM RIMES. 

This impious vaunt is scarce expressed 
When terror fills the royal breast. 

The laugh has ceased. With bated breath 
All wait as at the hush of death ; 

For look ! O look ! On yonder wall 
A mystic hand is seen to fall ! 

It writes, it writes in lines of light ! 
And see ! It vanishes from sight ! 

With quivering limbs and bloodless face 
The king stands gazing at the place. 

His vassals, with amazement chill 

And speechless, wait their sovereign's will. 

None of his wise men can declare 
The awful sentence written there. 

And ere the morning dawns again, 
Belshazzar, the proud king, is slain. 



PART II. 

GLEANED FROM NATURE. 



Gleaned from Nature. 



I. 

OUR WORLD. 



/^UR world is a mote in the sunbeams, 
^-^ And it circles and wheels in its play 
With the numberless boonful companions 

It meets on its mystical way ; 
It dives and it eddies among them, 

By the breath of Omnipotence whirled, 
Or floats in the boundless abysm — 

This infinitesimal world ! 

Our world is a mote in the sunbeams 
Despite all its boastful display 

Of rainbows, auroras, and sunsets, 
And mountains in regal array ; 

Despite all its great roaring oceans, 



lOO RANDOM RIMES. 

And thunder-storms' menacing glare, 
'Tis only a mote in the sunbeams, 
Adrift in obscurity there. 

Our world is a mote in the sunbeams. 

And we, the frail dwellers thereon. 
Catch hardly a glimpse of its wonders 

Ere the light of our being is gone. 
At the few shining specks that flit by us 

We level our glasses with glee, 
And foolishly fancy we 've fathomed 

Infinitude's vast mystery. 

Our world is a mote in the sunbeams. 

Just one of the trillions unknown 
That sweep through the infinite spaces 

Like dust by a whirlwind up-blown ; 
One mote in the maze of creation ! 

And since in the one we can see 
Such order and beauty and grandeur. 

What must the great universe be ! 



GIvE^ANKD FROM NATURE. lOI 



II. 
MARCH. 

r^ RIM monarch, last and worst 

^-* Of winter's kings, we hate thy reign. 

To sit supreme and make display of despot 

power 
Upon a hapless world is thy delight. 
Thou blottest from the heavens the sun and 

fill' St 
The earth with howling fiends. The poor dost 

thou 
Despise, and sendest out thy imps with shout 
And scourge to drive them to their dens. Thou 

art 
Death's great ally. At thy command Disease 
Stalks forth, and where its victims flee dost 

thou 
Appoint a prison-house, and boltest it 



I02 RANDOM RIMES. 

With bars of steel. In vain sweet Mercy pleads ; 

Nor helpless infancy, nor tottering age 

Can move thy maddened heart. No voice of 

praise 
Nor gladdening smile lights up the face of earth 
Whilst thou art king. The birds come not ; the 

blooms 
Are dead ; the bees imprisoned in the cell ; 
And e'en the brooks, the sparkling songful 

brooks, 
Lie strangled in their beds. O ghoulish glee, 
That gloats upon the graves of beauteousness 
And joy ! Gloat on, thy worst is done. E'en 

now 
The scepter trembles in thy palsied palm. 
1^0, at the door benignant April waits 
To take the crown. 



GLKANKD FROM NATURK. IO3 



III. 
MAYING. 

AH! I've found you, pretty one, 
''*' Creeping out to greet the sun 

From your frosty bed ; 
I suppose you little thought 
That in this secluded spot 
You would be so early caught 

If you raised your head. 

I'd been searching all the morn 
Under rock and sedge and thorn 

By the woodland far, 
When at last I chanced to think 
Of this stony brooklet's brink 
Wliere the willows stoop to drink, 

lyO, and here you are ! 



I04 RANDOM RIMES. 

Here you are, each baby face 
Peeping out with witching grace 

From its cloak of green ; 
Precious blossom, don't you know 
Everybody loves you so 
That you ought to come and grow 

Where you can be seen? 

All the other flowers do, 
B'en the bashful violet blue 

Is not half .so coy ; 
How the dandelions bright, 
Buttercups, and daisies white 
Flock out boldly into sight 

In their childlike joy ! 

How they play among the trees. 
Nodding to each passing breeze, 

Gazing at the sky ! 
No aversion harbor they 
Toward the clearest light of day, 
And the most frequented way 

Finds them ever nigh ; 



GIvBANED FROM NATURE. IO5 

While you, lovelier than all, 
You, the first to hear the call 

Of the zephyrs low, 
In some lone, sequestered nook 
Hide away where none may look ; 
Only bird and bush and brook 

Half your sweetness know. 

But we're told when you appear 
By a thousand voices clear 

Which had long been dumb ; 
Every tree-top since you came 
Has resounded with your name ; 
And the vocal pools proclaim, 

* ' Arbutus has come ! ' ' 

Blessed harbinger of spring, 
How can I fit praises sing 

To such faultless worth ? 
Fragrant as the breath of morn. 
Beauteous as rosy dawn, 
First of sun and shower born, 

Blushing star of earth ! 



I06 RANDOM RIMKS. 

Gentle teacher, unto me 
lessons of humility 

And content impart — 
Lessons wherein I may trace 
Something of that winsome grace 
Which for you a welcome place 

Finds in every heart. 



GivKANKD FROM NATURE. IO7 



IV. 

A MERRY-GO-ROUND. 

T AM sitting here watching a merr>^- go- round, 
* The grandest that ever was seen ; 

It centres in yonder horizon's dim bound, 
And it turns with a rush, and a rumbhng sound 
As I gaze on its emerald sheen. 

Come, tarry with me ; 'tis a beautiful sight ; 

'Tis nature's great gala display ; 
The orchards and groves wheel around in their 

flight. 
And flit past our faces like phantoms of light. 

Then circle away, and away. 

The meadows are coming all bright with the 
bloom 
Of orchid, and iris, and rue ; 



I08 RANDOM RIMES. 

They fan us with breath of delicious perfume 
And hasten away, as if to make room 
For the hillsides appearing in view. 

Ah ! there is a brooklet that fain would not go, 

And backward is striving to flee ; 
Like a serpent disabled b}^ merciless blow. 
It winds its way slowly, and ever more slow. 
Till lost in the lake by the lea. 

Yon husbandman, quite undisturbed by his ride, 

Plows on through the green, growing maize, 

While the bare- footed boy, on that old bay 

astride, 
Sits up like a prince in the pink of his pride, 
Returning our curious gaze. 

And now a whole city comes thundering on 

With its mansions and monuments high ; 
A murmur of marts meets the ear and is gone. 
And see ! O the wonder, — to look out upon 
The dead in their graves rushing by ! 

Now faster, and faster, and faster it gains ; 



GLBANKD FROM NATURE. IO9 

Ho ! Hear you that shriek of alarm ? 
No, 'tis of deHght at the speed it attains, 
See ! The trees Hke wild horses are sweeping 
the plains, 

There 's not a suspicion of harm. 

O a marvelous thing is this merry-go-round ! 

Have you seen it ? No ? Hardly can guess 
What I mean ? Well, indeed, it is easily found 
By just glancing out as you sit homeward bound 

Aboard of the lightning express. 



no RANDOM RIMES. 



V. 

AT EVENTIDE. 



pURPIvE and crimson and scarlet and gold, 
^ Scarlet and crimson and gray — 
Trappings of glory the heavens unfold 
O'er the low- fallen monarch of day. 



Azure and cloudlet and forest-height dim, 

Ocean and mountain and sky, 
Drinking the wine of remembrance to him 

Who guards them no longer on high. 

Hillside of verdure and valley of bloom, 
Where his late kisses have pressed. 

Dropping their tears in the gathering gloom 
At thought of the grave in the west. 



GI.KANKD FROM NATURK. Ill 



O faithless earth ! Bid fears not annoy, 
Only a night-time, and then 

Brightness and beauty and paeans of joy 
Shall tell of his coming again. 



112 RANDOM RIMES. 



VI. 

THE GRANITE HII.LS. 

Read at a dinner of The Sons and Daughters of 
New Hampshire, Worcester, Mass., Feb. 12, 1891. 

T ET US sing to-night of the Granite Hills 
^ That, since the dawn of time, 
Have borne aloft their regal forms 

In majesty sublime. 
The gales have swept their upturned brows. 

The thunders muttered by, 
But what are winds and storms to those 

Brave children of the sky? 

They stand — the same old Granite Hills 
Which, when the world was young, 

Rolled back unto the morning stars 
The anthems they had sung ; 

Their roaring torrents rushed amain — 



GI.KANKD FROM NATURE. II3 

Their tuneful brooklets ran — 
To swell that universal strain 
From which all song began. 

And they shall stand. The centuries 

Sweep lightly o'er their heads 
As rippling waves of summer streams 

Upon their pebbly beds ; 
And sylvan generations pass 

Through their appointed span 
As fleetingly as vernal grass 

Before the eyes of man. 

Come, sing with me of the Granite Hills 

Whose domes and turrets white 
Rising above the shifting clouds 

Are bathed in crystal light ; 
Those palace towers the Northern Star 

Has chosen for his own, 
And midst their radiance afar 

Fixed his unchanging throne. 

Before that throne the glittering hosts 
That throng the boundless blue, 
8 



114 RANDOM RIMKS. 

At even- tide are marshaled forth 

To pass in grand review ; 
From unseen realms their cohorts bright 

Troop up the eastern sky 
And, circling round that central height, 

March on eternally. 

O let us sing of the Granite Hills ! 

No grander ever rose 
To meet the smiles of coming da}^ 

Or wait the sun's repose ; 
No grander forests ever shook 

Their giant arms in air, 
Nor e'er sang sweeter bird or brook 

Than those that carol there. 

Wild flowers clamber up those steeps 

And crowd the vales between. 
While lakelets from their glassy deeps 

Reflect to heaven the scene. 
The hunted doe for refuge seeks 

Those haunts of solitude, 
And on the jagged topmost peaks 

The eagle tends her brood. 



GLKANKD FROM NATURK. II5 

Yes, let us sing of the Granite Hills, 

Built up that man might see 
How wonderfully near to heaven 

Our common earth may be — 
Built up to hold unceasingly, 

Before our human eyes. 
The grandeur, strength, and symmetry 

To which a soul may rise. 

Among those ever-blessed heights 

Is many a sacred place. 
Which from our minds the busy years 

May nevermore efface : 
The old home standing on the hill 

Beneath the maple shade ; 
The school-house past the noisy mill 

Where we as children played ; 

The village common, long ago 

The scene of bat and ball. 
Protected by a faithful row 

Of horse-sheds for a wall ; 
The meeting-house just farther out, 

To which we used to bring 



Il6 RANDOM RIMES. 

Our "Watts' Select," and turn about 
To see the choir sing ; 

And that long- hallowed spot beneath 

The church's sheltering brow, 
Where some who lived and toiled for us 

Are laid in slumber now, — 
Above their heads the willows wave, 

And staggering slabs of slate 
Record at every grassy grave 

A name, — an age, — a date. 

God bless the dear old Granite Hills, 

And may they ever stand 
Fit symbol of the strength and hope 

Of all this favored land ; 
And may the sons and daughters born 

Among those summits fair 
Remember their high birth and scorn 

To bring dishonor there. 

Be it remembered that for us 
Those changeless altars rise, 
And wait to bear our orisons 



GLEANED FROM NATURE. II7 

lyike incense to the skies. 
From bourne to bourne, from pole to pole, 

Where'er our brothers dwell, 
Let paeans of devotion roll 

And hymns of homage swell. 

Now let us raise the scng again. 

And strike the music higher, 
Nor stay until its glad refrain 

Shall every soul inspire ; 
lyct heart with heart in praises vie 

Until each bosom thrills 
With purposes as grandly high 

As those eternal hills ! 



Il8 RANDOM RIMES. 



VII. 

A RETROSPECT OF THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS. 

A ND now look back whence we have come. 

•'*■ O for a painter to portray the scene ! 

First the foot-hills verdure-clad and beauteous 
with bloom ; 

And then the nearer mountains looking down 
on these like fond parents upon their 
children ; 

And then those patriarchal peaks towering 
majestically in the distance ; 

And then that mass of rolling, foaming, fleecy 
cloud, scarcely distinguishable from the 
hoary heads on which it rests, but rising 
above them, billow upon billow, until 
it veils the big sinking sun, which in 
turn transfixes it with light, and crowns 



GLKANKD FROM NATURE. I IQ 

its every summit and all the mountain- 
tops beneath, with silver, and scarlet, 
and opal, and amethyst, and gold ! 

Glorious spectacle ! Look on it if you can ! 

Tier upon tier, terrace above terrace, height 
beyond height — 

A very stairway to heaven ! 

Look on it, O doubting soul ! 

Look ! until your eyes, inured to glory, catch 
through the opening gates of sunset 
glimpses ineffable of the celestial coun- 
try ! 



T20 RANDOM RIMES. 



VIII. 

CIvEMATIS. 

T IGHT and airy as a fairy 
*^ Risest thou before my sight ; 
From the rocky roadside springing, 
To each bush and bramble clinging, 
Over all a mantle flinging 
Emerald and white. 

No material so ethereal 

E'er was wrought of things below ; 
Wafted from some rare division 
Of the blooms of fields elysian, 
Comest thou, celestial vision, 

Garlanded with snow. 

Every cluster adds a luster 

To what seemed supremely fair ; 



GLEANED FROM NATURE. 121 

Upward toward the skies inclining, 
All our baser thought refining, 
Myriad wreaths thou art entwining 
Bright as angels wear. 

Softly creeping, gently sweeping, 

Over stone and hedge and tree, 
With whate'er thy hands are finding 
Beauty art thou interwinding, 
Friend and foe together binding 

In fraternity. 

Lowliest places glow with graces 

Wheresoe'er thy tresses fall ; 
Prince and peasant pause to bless thee ; 
Breeze and bird and bee caress thee ; 
Flowers of every hue confess thee 

Queen among them all. 

Heaven shall own thee, earth enthrone thee, 

Till the stars thy temples kiss. 
Goddess of the airs of morning. 
Fell and field and flood adorning, 
Recompense divinely scorning, 

Lovely Clematis ! 



122 RANDOM RIMKS. 



IX. 

THE MAPLE. 

/^ COME, for the day is delaying 

^-^ To see what young Autumn has done, 

While his master- piece grand he 's displaying 

To his critic, the all-seeing sun. 

Its green, and its gold, and its crimson, 

Its scarlet, and crimson, and gold, 

Together are blending 

In tints never ending, 

And harmonies rare to behold. 

O come, for the breezes are blowing 
And tossing each flamelet in air ; 

All the gems of a monarch's bestowing 
Cannot with such brightness compare ; 

For oh ! it is touched with the morning, 
With the glintings of sunset it glows, 



GIvKANBD FROM NATURE. 1 23 

Every leaflet aflame 
Puts all genius to shame 
And shadows the crown of the rose. 

O put by your brushing and broiling, 

And throw down 3^our hammers and spades; 

There '11 be time enough left you for toiling 
When this bit of Paradise fades. 

yes, there '11 be time left for toiling — 
For toiling there always is time, 

Though in the transition 
Of glimpses elysian 
The soul misses all the sublime. 

1 have read a most marvelous story 
Of a country, in regions unknown, 

Wherein stands a city whose glory 

Is caught from the Infinite Throne — 
And a tree by the banks of a river. 
Which none but immortals may see, — 
I cannot tell how 
We can look on it now. 
But I 'm certain that this is the tree ! 



124 RANDOM RIMES. 



X. 

TO A WOUNDED THRUSH. 

JpiTY on you, helpless thing, 
^ In my pathway fluttering — 
Bleeding breast, and broken wing,- 

Trembling with affright ; 
Cannot run and cannot fly, 
Cannot even voice a cry. 
Can but linger here — and die, 

In the storm to-night ! 

Scarce an hour ago your song, 
O'er the brooklet's rising strong, 
Thrilled me as I passed along 

Through this woody way ; 
Scarce an hour ago your mate 
By the home-nest joyful sate 
Drinking in with soul elate 

Your enchanting lay. 



GI.KANED FROM NATURE. 1 25 

Cursed be the heartless one 
Who this cruel deed has done — 
Cursed while the morning sun 

Earth with gladness wreathes ! 
May no song-bird evermore 
Build its nest beside his door, 
Nor its wealth of joyance pour 

On the air he breathes ! 

Gentle singer, sure am I 
From distress you soon will fly 
Unto groves beyond the sky, 

Far from cruel men ; 
You will bide with birds and flowers 
Of the amaranthine bowers, 
Singing all the golden hours 

Your old song again ! 



126 RANDOM RIMES. 



XI. 

FALLING LEAVES. 

T^HEY are dropping — slowly dropping, 
* Embers from the flaming trees ; 
All their radiance and splendor, 
Kindled by the sunshine tender, 
To the earth they now surrender 
And the wajnvard breeze. 

They are coming — swiftly coming, 
Amber, amethyst, and pearl ; 

With the ties of nature riven, 

Tempest-tossed and madly driven. 

Flashing luster back to heaven 
In their giddy whirl. 

They are flitting — gayly flitting, 
Fledglings of autumnal light ; 



GI.KANKD FROM NATURE. 1 27 

From their lofty perches straying, 
With each passing zephyr playing, 
Bough and bush the course delaying 
Of their final flight. 

They are hovering — gently hovering, 

Over vale and rugged steep ; 
Covering o'er the bloom-lit spaces 
Which the early frost defaces. 
Mantling tenderly the places 

Where our loved ones sleep. 

Yes, they're falling — sadly falling, 
Russet, crimson, gold and gray ; 

Beauteous millions headlong flying, 

With the winds' discordant sighing. 

At our feet ignobly lying, 
Waiting dread decay. 

They are teaching — fitly teaching, 

That which gladdens — that which grieves: 

There is naught of earth abiding ; 

But, behind all nature hiding. 

Is a Hand our footsteps guiding 
And the falling leaves. 



128 RANDOM RIMBS. 



XII. 
HAZEL BLOOM. 

DLOOM of the frosty light 
*-^ Spangling with color bright 

Woodside and glen, 
Thrice glad thy coming here 
Now all the earth is drear — 
Child of the dying year, 

Welcome again. 

No sister blossoms sweet 
Linger thy steps to greet, 

Thy charms to learn ; 
Sere all the hillsides lie, 
Songless the woodland nigh. 
Only the streams and sky 

Hail thy return. 



GI^EANKD FROM NATURE. 1 29 

Symbol of hope art thou 
Unto each leafless bough, 

Each silent grove ; 
For in thy stellar rays 
Gleams pledge of vernal days, 
Sunshine and songs of praise, 

Gladness and love. 



130 RANDOM RIMES. 



XIII. 

HARVEST HYMN. 

QHEAF and shock in garnered store, 
*^ Brimming bin and bounteous board 
Mind us of the ceaselsss care 

Of the ever-mindful Lord. 
For these tokens of his love 

Lift a song, ye sons of men, 
Waft it to the worlds above — 

God has blest the earth again ! 

Stay, ye warblers of the wood, 

Stay, O stay your southward flight 
Till in one glad hymn of praise 

All our voices may unite ; 
O'er and o'er this carol meet 

Let the grove, the glade, the glen 
Echo — and the hills repeat — 

God has blest the earth again ! 



GLEANED FROM NATURE. 13I 

Publish it, ye wandering winds, 

Whatsoe'er the voice may be ; 
Roar it through the rocky gorge, 

Trill it from the trembling tree, 
Lisp it in the ear of night 

As ye trip along the plain, 
Shout it from each mountain height — 

God has blest the earth again ! 

Sing it, all ye blitheful brooks 

Gamboling down the hillsides free ; 
Sing it to the listening skies, 

Sing it to the answering sea. 
Thrill the ocean's thunderous roll 

With the burden of the strain 
Till it peals from pole to pole — 

God has blest the earth again ! 

Sing, yon sisterhood of stars. 

Ye, who chorused when the earth, 
Out of chaos dark and waste, 

Leaped to life in wondrous birth, — 
Sing it through the vast unknown, 

Wheresoe'er ye chanted then. 
Sing ye, circling round the Throne, 

God has blest the earth again ! 



132 RANDOM RIMES. 



XIV. 

DECEMBER. 

/^ COLD lies the snow in the dreary De- 

^-^ cember, 

And cold stands the oak on the mountain's 

bleak side, 
But colder by far are the hopes I remember 
Which blossomed in beauty then faded and died . 

The soft summer wind that caressed the green 

branches 
Till each leaf responded with musical tone, 
Was never more sweet than the dreams of my 

fancy ; 
But now they are vanished, those visions are 

flown. 

The Ice- King descends in the dreary December, 



GIvEANKD FROM NATURE. 1 33 

His beard is the snow and the tempest his 

breath, 
He breathes — and the mountain Hes shrouded 

and silent ; 
The laughing brook falters and stiffens in death. 

The winds sweep the mountain in wild exulta- 
tion ; 

They howl through its forests with desolate 
moan ; 

With garlands of frost-work the Ice- King en- 
twines it 

And cries : "I am Winter and this is my 
throne. ' ' 

[tion 

O bright were the buds of my youthful ambi- 

And full of glad promise was life's leafy day ; 

But the breath of the Ice- King has spoiled their 
fruition, 

The wild winds of winter are howling in May. 

The flowers of hope I had cherished so fondly, 
Whose presence was beauty, whose breath was 
perfume, 



134 RANDOM RIMES. 

Have fallen to earth like the leaves of the 

mountain, 
lyike them to lie buried in darkness and gloom. 

But spring shall return to the still shrouded 

mountain 
And melt the cold clutch of the Ice- King away ; 
Again shall its fountains be loosed from their 

fetters 
And orchards resound with the oriole's lay. 

Again shall its forests be mantled with verdure ; 
Again its broad slopes wear a carpet of green ; 
Again the bright blossoms give promise of 

plenty, 
And provident squirrels at harvest be seen. 

And is the Great Ruler of earth and the heavens 
Less mindful of mine to foster and shield, 
Shall the hopes He hath planted himself in my 

bosom 
Be sooner forgotten than grass of the field ? 

Forbid it and teach me this lesson to cherish, 



GI.KANKD FROM NATURE. 1 35 

When clouds hang above me and billows are 

nigh: 
That hope, to the soul, is a pledge of fruition ; 
God's sure bow of promise in every dark sky. 



136 RANDOM RIMKS. 



XV. 

LIFE IS A SKY. 

/^ LIFE is a sky with its sunshine and 
^^ shadow, 

Its canopied top with the stars peeping 
through, 
Its earth Hmitation, our little horizon ; 

But upward, forever, the limitless blue ! 

And life is a sky, a glimmer, a dawning. 
As Phoebus rolls up from the Orient main, 

A noontide of glory succeeding the morning. 
Then lengthening shadows and darkness 
again. 

Ah ! life is a sky ; And now it is beaming 
With bright bows of promise and fostering 
care — 



GlyEANED FROM NATURE. 1 37 

And now it is black save the grim lightnings 
gleaming 
On the wreck of its hopes in the gloom of 
despair. 

Yes, life is a sky ; and the God who created 
Its numberless worlds through their cycles 
to run 

Is alike unto all of his creatures related — 
A glow-worm to him is as grand as a sun ! 



138 RANDOM RIMKS. 



XVI. 

MUSIC. 

\1 7HKN He who made the worlds would try 
^ ^ device 

By which to crown with joy the perfect plan, 
He swung far back the gates of Paradise 
And called his angel, Music, down to man. 

And forth she came. Her beauteous sister, 
Light, 

The first-born offspring of the radiant stars. 
Attended her in that primordial flight 

Till safe within the dim terrestrial bars. 

At first she sought the ocean grand and deep. 
Which erstwhile had in silence lashed the 
shore : 



GLEANED FROM NATURE. 1 39 



She bade its waves henceforth with cadence 
sweep, 
And chant in choral numbers evermore. 



Then to the rivers, rivulets, and rills 

She taught the murmurous songs which they 
have sung, 
Laughing and leaping down their native hills. 
Or wandering through the vales, since earth 
was young. 

Next mounted she on chariot of cloud ; 

Her steeds, the winds, she urged to madden- 
ing flight ; 
The dome above reverberated loud 

With tones sublime, and all was wrapped in 
night. 

Anon her gleaming chariot-torches cleft 
The ebon shade below with noonday glare, 

But swift as thought evanishing, they left 
Their track engulfed in deeper darkness there. 

Then liquid notes, like tongues of silver bells. 



I40 RANDOM RIMES. 

She scattered over mountains, lakes, and 
plains ; 
With wild crescendos swept the woody dells. 
Or waiting breathed in soft aeolian strains. 

The chorus ceased, and on the eastern sky 
The first faint flush of rosy morning lay, 

But yet no voice of happy minstrelsy 

Had e'er been found to greet the coming day. 

Then summoned she the tribes of gladsome wing 
From forest, fell, and fen, afar and near, 

And taught them anthems at that hour to sing 
So long as stars should fade and dawns appear. 

And then to man with admiration dumb 
She pitying stooped, and with divinest art 

Touched his mute lips, and bade him haste to 
come 
And bear in earth's new symphonies his part. 

She gave to him the organ, harp, and lyre. 
The martial trumpet, drum, and clarion shrill, 

And every pipe and string which might inspire 
His hands to wake the woodland songs at will. 



GLEANED FROM NATURE. 14I 

Then lingered she among the airs of even 
Until each leaflet learned to whisper low 

And send some message to the ear of heaven 
By every zephyr which might chance to blow. 

And now 'twixt earth and amaranthine bowers 
She speeds her gladdening course from star 
to star, 

Hers are the hands by which this world of ours 
Is held in concord with the worlds afar. 



14^ RANDOM RIMES. 



XVII. 

THE FIRE KING. 

/^ H I am a king, though you think me a slave 
^-^ And fret me with warder and grate, 
And make me to Hve in dungeons that give 
No hint of my regal estate ! 

Though you drive me about with your dampers 
and draughts 

And smother my breath in a flue, 
And grudgingly dole me a pittance of coal 

As the world I encircle for j^ou ; 

Though you call me to lighten and warm your 
abodes, 

Your larders wdth viands to fill. 
To wake at the scratch of a lucifer match 

By day or by night at your will ; 



GI.KANKD FROM NATURE. 1 43 

I bid you beware, — though I servilely toil, 

I am never the serf that I seem. 
For mine is the sun, and the stars every one. 

And the skies where my thunderbolts gleam. 

O who can depict my ecstatic delight. 

Or cope with my rollicking play, 
As I sweep the broad plain a forest to gain, 

And lick up the towns in my way ! 

When I waken in wrath from my cave in the 
earth 

The mountains portentously quake. 
The seas at the sight stagger back in affright 

And the islands stand dazed in their wake ! 

And man, braggart man, who calls himself lord 
Of earth and the measureless main, 

At the touch of my breath drops silent in death — 
Mere ashes to whiten the plain. 

But boast, puny man, of your might while you 
can, 
Your slave will not always obey ; 



144 RANDOM RIMES. 

Anon he will rise in revolt to the skies 
And the earth shall be melted away ; 

And the heavens shall roll themselves back like 
a scroll, 
The stars shall like stubble consume, 
And firmaments shake with the thunders that 
wake 
When he shall his sceptre resume. 



PARI" III. 

MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT, 



lo 



Meditative and Reminiscent. 



I. 

IN MYSTERY. 



SPEAK reverently of life. Thou knowest 
this: 

'Tis light; 'twas dark; 'twill soon be dark 
again. 

Thou knowest naught beyond. What forms, 
perchance, 

Thou may'st have borne ; what worlds in- 
habited ; 

What fancies entertained of life and truth, 

Of duty, origin and destiny. 

Before thou didst approach the mystic gate 

Of birth, thou hast forgot. No sight, no sound, 

No hint of knowledge gleaned from otherwhere 



148 RANDOM RIMES. 

Canst thou recall to guide thy wanderings here. 
The dark ! the light ! and then the dark again ! 
This seest thou ; this only canst thou know. 

Speak reverently of death. It is the door 
Made for thy soul's escape, when flood, or flame, 
Or time's all devastating hand shall tear 
The temple down . It outward swings with ease. 
'T is well it turns not back ; else might thy soul, 
Thy fond and foolish soul, retrace its steps 
And perish in the wreck. What memories 
Of here and now, what scars from deeds mis- 
done. 
Or battles bravely fought, it hence shall bear. 
Thou canst not tell. This only dost thou know : 
It is the door through which thy soul must pass 
To meet the possibilities beyond. 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 1 49 



II. 

THE HONEST MAN. 

HONOR the houest man. Earth rears but 
few. 
Only at God's white forge are such souls 

wrought. 
Rare honest man ! His mind perchance sees 

truth 
In different forms from thine, yet honor him. 
Perchance his vision thy dim sight transcends, 
And what to thee appears sublime and sure 
As the eternal hills, to him is but 
A bubble in the air. Perchance when thou 
Hast found the crystal spring whereof he drinks, 
Thou, too, wilt quaff, and own the light divine. 

Honor the man who brooks no evil art, 

No sham, no counterfeit ; whose soul is pure 



150 RANDOM RIMES. 

Within as fair without ; who humbly stands 
Before the searching gaze of earth and heaven 
For what he is ; whom angels guard and wait 
With eager eye the signal to convoy 
In safety to the skies ; who calm can face 
The awful front of death, but will not break 
His plighted troth with truth ; ay, honor him 
And thus ennoble thine own struggling soul. 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 15I 



III. 

JUST ONE. 

r\ BLEvSS the bright day 

^^ That brought you this way, 

My rosy-cheeked lump of a girl, 

With a cowlick right there 

In the front of your hair. 
Which your mother insists is a curl ! 

Just one year is done 

And another begun — 
Just one, little daughter, just one. 

These wonder-lit eyes, 

Painted after the skies. 
Or the autumn fringed gentian bright, 

Have seen come and go 

Just one winter's snow 
And one summer's daisies of white ; 



152 RANDOM RIMES. 

One round of the risings 
And settings of sun — 
Just one, little daughter, just one. 

Should these little hands fly 
As unceasingl}^ 

Through life as they now are inclined, 
What a work they will do, 
As the world you go through, 

To help, or to hinder, mankind ! 
One skein of the woof 
Of a life they have spun — 

Just one, little daughter, just one. 

Who would venture to say 
Where these feet may yet stray 

As the seasons so swiftly speed by ; 
For they ran far away, 
Just one year to-day, 

From their home in the beautiful sky? 
One mile in return 
They have already run — 

Just one, little daughter, just one. 



MEDITATIVK AND REMINISCENT. 153 

You have turned just a leaf 

Of the gladness and grief 
Of the book of our common life, 

And the further you turn 

The more you will learn 
Of its trouble, and care, and strife ; 

A single leaf done, 

With blemishes none — 
Not one, little daughter, not one. 

Oh, ye oncoming years. 

With your hopes and 5^our fears. 
Be kind to our dear little one. 

And bring her not in 

More of sorrow or sin 
Than the one that is done ; 

For she's seen only one — 
Just one, little daughter, just one. 



154 RANDOM RIMES. 



IV. 
SERENADE. 

O LEEP, beloved, sleep ! 

^ Guardian spirits vigil keep, — 
Faithful prayers for thee ascending, 
Friendly thoughts about thee blending. 
Over thee the heavens bending, — 

Sleep, beloved, sleep ! 

Sleep, beloved, sleep ! 
O'er no past let memory weep ; 
Bid no anxious bodings borrow 
From a dim, uncertain morrow 
Anything of pain or sorrow ; 

Sleep, beloved, sleep ! 

Sleep, beloved, sleep ! 
Trust thyself to slumbers deep ; 



MKDITATIVB AND REMINISCENT. 1 55 

Slumber will to strength restore thee, 
Strength will smooth the way before thee, 
God's own stars are watching o'er thee, — 
Sleep, beloved, sleep ! 

Sleep, beloved, sleep ! 
Softly now the shadows creep ; 
May no troubled dreams o'ertake thee, 
Nor night's peaceful calm forsake thee, 
Till the songs of day awake thee ; 

Sleep, beloved, sleep ! 



156 ' RANDOM RIMES. 



V. 

HIS FIRST PAIR. 

/^ dance ! my child, as well you may, 
^-^ And clap your little hands for joy 
We put you into pants to-day 
And now you are indeed a bo}'. 

No master with his slaves around, 

No valet in a duke's employ, 
No minister on foreign ground 

Is half so proud as you, my boy ! 

Indeed, you hardly deign to see 
Your coat or ruffled Fauntleroy ; 

What trifles are these all to thee ! 

But pants — j^es, pants just take a boy ! 

See ! pockets in them, I declare ! 
With room for every cherished toy ; 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 1 57 

The treasures of a millionaire 

Are less than these to you, my boj*. 

Fine clothes can never make a man 
Though scores of tailors he employ ; 

But who — deny it if you can, — 

Who says that pants won't make a boy? 

So dance, my darling, while you may, 
And thus the blissful now enjoy ; 

These pants will soon be laid away, 
You cannot always be a boy. 

This world you ' 11 find a hollow ball ; 

Its riches vanish, pleasures cloy ; 
Go suck the sweetness from them all, 

The best is still your own my boy ! 



158 RANDOM RIMKS, 



VI. 

OUR BIRTHDAY. 

/^^OME, m}^ baby, just a moment, 
^-^ Leave a little while your play, 
lyay your head upon my shoulder ; 

You and I were born to-day. 
I, indeed, am looking backward 

Loath to let the old year go ; 
You, impatient for the future, 

Wonder wh}^ it comes so slow. 

I was once a child like you, dear, 

Loved the things you love to-day ; 
Soon your silken locks will silver 

Just like mine with threads of gray. 
Both of us are helpless creatures 

Stranded on a rugged shore, 
Six-and- thirty years I've been here — 

You, my darling, only four. 



MEDITATIVK AND REMINISCENT. 1 59 

Tell me, O ye wandering billows, 

Of the one ye bore away, 
Is she thinking, fondly thinking, 

Of her little boy to-day ? 
Is she watching still his footsteps ? 

Tell, O tell me where, I pray ; 
For 'twas long ago she left him, 

Left her babe of four to-day. 

So amid the gathering shadows 

I am living memories o'er ; 
Birthdays once were bright and joyous, 

Key to every miagic store ; 
Now they find me looking backward. 

Back through recollection's door; 
Time, grim warder, heeds my password — 

Open sesame — no more. 

See ! The rogue with shout and laughter 
Hurls his playthings round the floor ! 

Heaven protect and keep him ever 
Pure and happy as at four. 



l6o RANDOM RIMES. 



VII. 

FOR A GOLDEN WEDDING. 

YOU have sometimes watched the forests 
* Put on their garments bright 
Till they stood, as it were, transfigured 

In autumn's mellow light ; 
There were crimson and gold on hillside, 

And scarlet and gold in glen — 
The roses of June were hueless 

Compared to the glory then. 

You have sometimes watched the sunset 

Light up the western skies 
Till vision of forms supernal 

Appeared to your mortal eyes ; 
There were radiant cloud-ships sailing 

Upon a sea of gold — 
Almost you could make the harbor 

And the City of Light behold. 



MKDITATIVK AND RKMINISCKNT. l6l 

Thus may benignant Heaven 

Crown each succeeding year 
With higher, hoHer pleasures 

Through all your sojourn here ; 
And be these blest illusions, 

So kindly .sent to view, 
An earnest of the future 

That waits in store for you. 



ij 



1 62 RANDOM RIMES. 



VIII. 

A FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY. 

jy /I ORNING is beauteous, bright and gay, 
^ ' * And noontide exults in power. 
But the golden glor}^ that crowns the day 
Comes not till the sunset hour. 

Spring-time with gladness her verdure weaves, 
And summer in bloom is dressed. 

But the autumn leaves and the harvest sheaves 
Are grander than all the rest. 

And while the bosom with rapture thrills 
At thoughts of the morning bright, 

You are looking away to the western hills. 
And watching the gates of light. 

While true to the heart fond memory fain 
Holds fast to the buds and bloom. 



me:ditative; and reminiscknt. 163 

Your arms are filled with the golden grain 
Awaiting the harvest home. 

May the Father grant that you long may wait 

The joy of the earth to share, 
Unparted go up to the heavenly gate, 

Together enter there. 



164 RANDOM RIMES. 



IX. 

TO WHITTIKR. 

(On reading his I,ife aud Ivetters.") 

O SPOTLESS soul, thy life was so divine, 
So hallowed every place became by thee, 
New England now is freedom's Palestine, 
Its every lake a blessed Galilee ! 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 1 65 



X. 

MUSIC. 

CHILD of the Morning Stars ! Sister of 
I.ight ! 
Spirit of joy for worlds unnumbered given ! 
She stoops to earth, in her all-conquering flight, 
And soars at will with captive souls to heaven. 



1 66 RANDOM RIMES. 



XI. 

FORGIVENESS. 

IT is sweet to forgive. Hast thou proved it 
^ The glad benediction that steals 
Through the heart b}^ ingratitude wounded 

But which only benignity feels ? 
Hast thou read the assurance eternal, 

Star- written all over the skies : 
"The being forgiven may perish, 

But the one that forgives never dies?^' 

It is grand to forgive. Hast thou felt it — 

The thrilling expansion of soul 
As it mounts like an eagle to regions 

Beyond every tempter's control? 
The sordid earth shriveled beneath thee 

Till it seemed, in the distance o'erpast. 
As harmless and inconsequential 

As an autumn leaf swept by the blast. 



MKDITATIVK AND RKMINISCENT. 1 67 

It is just to forgive. Thy offences 

Against the All-holy, All-true, 
Leave lenience toward thine offender 

The least pledge of penitence due. 
It is naught that thy spirit is shriven 

And suffered in safety to live ; 
The meagerest souls are forgiven, 

But only the God-like forgive. 

It is time to forgive. Life is fleeting 

Too fast to be wasted in hate ; 
Opportunities yesterday slighted 

To-da}^ are remembered too late. 
Revenge is the cry of perdition. 

Of soul degradation and loss ; 
Forgiveness, the watchword of heaven 

And its symbol on earth is the cross. 



RANDOM RIMES. 



XII. 

GRANDEUR. 

'T^HERK is grandeur in the mountains 

Towering to the vaulted sky, 
Standing in majestic silence 

As the restless clouds go by ; 
Grandeur as the purpling sunset 

Its unstinted gold out- spreads 
Until diadems of opal 

Burn upon their kingly heads. 

There is grandeur in the ocean — 

Grandeur in the rhythmic roar 
Of the monotonic measures 

It is chanting evermore ; 
Grandeur in its mad endeavor 

To o'er- leap its prison bars, 
Or to grasp and hold forever 

In its arms the beaming stars. 



MKDITATIVK AND REMINISCKNT. 1 69 

There is grandeur in the heavens 

When the world is wrapt in night, 
And emblazoned hosts assembling 

Throng the empyrean height ; 
Grandeur as each radiant chieftain 

Wheels his cohorts into view, 
Marching with the mighty legions 

On the boundless field of blue. 

But the grandeur of the mountains, 

And the grandeur of the sea, 
And the grandeur of the heavens 

Seem like nothing unto me 
When I see a soul def3dng 

Calumny's insidious breath, 
Calmly on the truth relying 

For defense in face of death. 



170 RANDOM RIMKS. 



XIII. 

THANKSGIVING. 

POR another bounteous harvest 
•*■ Gathered in from hill and plain ; 
For the fruit of burdened orchards, 

And a wealth of golden grain ; 
For our flocks and herds home-turning ; 

For the treasures of the mine ; 
For the song of loom and hammer, — 

Praise, oh praise the Hand Divine ! 

For the all-surrounding grandeur 

Of the seasons circling by, 
From the flower-flecked vales beneath us 

To the stars that gem the sky, 
From the first bird- note of spring-time 

Till the dark-robed, pensive pine 
Plains the winter's parting requiem, — 

Praise, oh praise the Hand Divine ! 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 171 

For the mountains, and the forests, 

And the brooklets bounding free ; 
For the rivers rolUng seaward, 

And the great untiring sea ; 
For the sheen of dawn and sunset, 

And Jehovah's faithful sign 
Of remembrance on the storm-cloud, — 

Praise, oh praise the Hand Divine ! 

For the home, and for the home- land, 

Wherein fortune gave us birth ; 
For the Fatherhood of heaven, 

And the brotherhood of earth ; 
For our larger faith and freedom, 

And that sympathy benign 
Binding heart to heart forever, — 

Praise, oh praise the Hand Divine ! 

For the whisperings of angels 

Calling every struggling soul 
Unto heights whereon temptation 

Nevermore may gain control ; 
For the light that leads our spirits 

To the highest, holiest shrine. 
And for ladders stretching starward, — 

Praise, oh praise the Hand Divine ! 



172 RANDOM RIMKS. 



XIV. 

AT BETHI.KHKM. 

T ET us sing of the Babe that was born to-day 

■*— ' Mid the mountains of old Judea, 

With only the shepherds and wandering flocks 

To welcome his coming there ; 
But the angels chorused it through the sky, 

And the stars to behold him ran, 
And one in its rapture lingered nigh 

To mark out the spot for man. 

Oh, sing of the Babe that was born to-day, 

For the world had been wrapt in night, 
And the burdened and weary had lost their way 

And were groping in vain for light ! 
But it came, O joy ! and with power^to save ; 

It came by a manger given. 
And it banished forever the gloom of the grave 

And lighted the path to heaven. 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 1 73 

Yes, sing of the Babe that was born to-day, 

And earth take up the strain. 
The wonderful strain of long ago, 

That swept the star- lit plain. 
"Glory to God," ye mountains, cry. 

Till from their farthest shore 
The deep-mouthed oceans make reply, 

' ' Glory forevermore ! ' ' 

[earth!" 
"And peace on earth." Aye! "Peace on 

Above the clashing sword. 
And shout and groan, in din of death. 

Still let that voice be heard. 
Sing on, glad angels ! Shine, O star ! 

Nor dare your vigil cease 
Till o'er the final field of war 

Shall wave the palms of peace ! 

O kingly head, that found no rest 

Save in a manger low ! 
O sinless head, whereon was pressed 

The world's thorn-crown of woe ! 
Now wearest thou thy crown of light. 

And brighter stars than gem 



174 RANDOM RIMES. 

The amethystine arch of night 
Adorn that diadem. 

And circUng ages dim it not ; 

When every gUttering crown 
And song of earth have been forgot, 

And thrones have crumbled down, 
One crown shall still resplendent gleam, 

One throne feel no deca}^, 
One song — the song at Bethlehem — 

Shall never die away. 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 1 75 



XV. 

AN EASTER THOUGHT. 

ARISE, O Christ, arise ! 
The world has waited long 
Beneath the unrelenting rod 

Of ignorance and wrong ; 
Arise, and let thy truth benign 
Fill every land with light divine 
And every soul with song. 

Arise, O Christ, arise ! 

In arms the nations stand 
Ready to close in deadly strife 

At tyranny's command ; 
Their ironclads in grim array 
Defiantly invite affray 

By every sobbing strand. 



176 RANDOM RIMES. 

Arise, O Christ, arise ! 

Behold the suffering poor ; 
Lo, Dives banquets as of old 

With I^azarus at the door ; 
That one may sport in purple dress 
Ten thousand toil in wretchedness, 

Ten thousand want endure. 

Arise, O Christ, arise 

And bid oppression cease ! 
Let the imperious eagle die, 

The blessed dove increase 
That she may bring to struggling men, 
O'er all the waste of earth again. 

The olive branch of peace. 



MKDITATIVK AND RKMINISCENT. 1 77 



XVI. 

I.IBKRTY. 



DEST of man's possessions here, 
^ Guarded most with jealous fear, 
Dear to all, supremely dear, 

Is liberty. 



Wealth may wait in rich array, 
1^0 ve its magic charms display. 
Fame invite the soul away 

From libert}^; 

Man will spurn them all, and dare 
Destitution and despair 
Rather than the shackles wear 

Of slaver}^ 



178 RANDOM RIMES. 

Freedom ! List the clarion cry ! 
Hark ! The echoing hills reply, 
* ' Name him not who would not die 
For liberty. ' 

Let the tide of battle pour, 
Let the awful cannon roar, 
Lay the dead at every door 

For liberty ! 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 1 79 



XVII. 

DECORATION DAY. 

|\ ] OT for the dead alone this day we cherish ; 
^ ^ For all our brave deserve as well 
As those who in the conflict fell, — 
Each risked his all, — no one could tell 
Which was to perish. 

Not for the dead alone we bring these flowers ; 
But for their parents bowed with years, 
Their children whom this day endears, 
For wives and sisters yet in tears — 
Their griefs are ours. 

Not for the dead alone these ensigns gory ; 
But to impress on every eye 
At what a cost we still may fly 
That fabric fashioned from the sky — 
Our nation's glory ! 



l8o • RANDOM RIMES. 

Not for the dead alone the drums are beating 
But Hstening ears shall catch the strain 
And comrades join the sad refrain 
Till heart to heart shall beat again 
In solemn greeting. 

Not for the dead alone commemoration ; 
But that our sons be taught to-day 
The price their fathers had to pay 
To keep and unto them convey 
This mighty nation. 

Not for the dead alone — Ah ! truly not ; 
But for an object lesson grand 
That all the world may understand 
The valiant saviours of this land 
Are not forgot ! 



MKDITATIVK AND REMINISCENT. iSl 



XVIII. 

ADORATION. 

pTERNAL One, whose all- controlling power 
"'— ' Pervades immensity, whose hands brought 

forth 
The countless worlds that roll above our heads 
And caused this changeful sphere, whereon we 

dwell, 
To thrill with life and love — for Thee we call. 
Where art Thou? Whither in all thy vast 

domain, 
Earth, ocean, air, or boundless space beyond, 
Shall we direct our cry ? Where is thy home ? 
We look around, above, below, on all 
Thy marvelous handiwork, but see Thee not. 
We call and, listening, wait. The friendly hills 
Repeat unto the skies our cry, but comes 
No answering voice save the low-sighing wind, 



1 82 RANDOM RIMES. 

The whispering leaf, the murmuring brook. 

Unseen, 
Unheard, unknown, excepting to the soul's 
Quick sense, we worship Thee. 

Nor can we less ; 
For lo, the very grass which clothes the hills, 
The beauteous blooms that star the vales be- 
tween, 
The blitheful birds, thy choristers of joy, 
The golden sunshine and the gentle rain 
Evince thy kindly care. While clearer yet 
The forests grand that girt the mountains round, 
The mountains crystal-crowned among the 

clouds. 
The mighty deep forever struggling on 
In frantic effort to o'erleap its bounds. 
The earthquake, lightning- flash and meteor 
Proclaim thy majest3^ 

Thou changest not. 
Before thy sight the myriad tribes of earth, 
lyike shadowy forms upon the canvas thrown, 
Appear and fade away. The earth itself 



MKDITATIVB AND REMINISCENT. 1 83 

Grows old, and soon to other worlds wnll yield 
Its place, which in their turn, for a brief hour, 
Successively will claim thy guardian care, 
Will feel the warmth, the quickening thrill of 

life. 
Beneath the kisses of some glowing sun, 
Then, like their predecessors, disappear 
And mingle with the unreturning past. 

Spirit Omnipotent, we know Thee not ; 

Yet to each finite mind dost Thou appear 

According to the measure of its power. 

Eternity, that term by man devised 

To span his utmost stretch of thought, suggests 

But faintly unto him thine endless days. 

Infinitude, the star- filled space past whose 

Domain imagination may not sweep. 

Is lost among the millions like itself 

In thy illimitable realm. 

We know Thee not. Yet all the mind can grasp 

Of goodness, greatness, wisdom, love and power, 

It groups in personality supreme 

And calls it God. All that the soul can dream 



1 84 RANDOM RIMKS. 

Of fadeless glory and unending joy 

It pictures to itself as Thine abode 

And calls it heaven. With all the heart can 

feel 
Of self- forgetting loyalty and love, 
Of sweet devotion, and unfaltering trust, 
It peoples that glad place with beings pure 
And calls them spirits ministrant. With all 
The strength of heart and mind and soul, with 

all 
The earnestness of conscious need, we lift 
Our struggling hopes to that Supremest 

Thought, 
And call it praj-er. 

O what is man that he 
Should boldly dare dictate to Deity, 
Or blind suggestions proffer unto Him 
Who made the perfect plan ? O what is man ? 
A ray shot forth from the Eternal Light, 
Which, parted from its origin divine. 
Contends alone an instant with the dark 
And disappears. And what is life ? A breath, 
A conscious glance between two unexplored 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 1 85 

Eternities. A flash which cleaves the night 

To give us glimpses of thy marvelous works, 

And of the operations of those laws, 

Which, acting now, were acting ere the dawn 

Of time, and shall immutably go on 

Till, world by world, the universe has rolled 

Itself away, and been resolved to naught. 

O wondrous laws ! incomprehensible. 

Eternal, infinite ! Inscribed above 

On every star and on each crystal drop 

Of dew that gems the morn ! O wondrous care, 

Which guides unerringly the flight of worlds, 

And heeds with equal thought a sparrow's fall ! 

O for a deeper sight, a broader view. 
For clearer light by which the eye may pierce 
The pathless realms that wait on every hand ! 
O for more time to slake this feverish thirst 
Of soul — more time to watch, and vStrive, and 

•learn — 
To delve into the secret vaults of earth. 
To rend the rocks and read the records there 
Writ by the Hand Divine before the eye 
Of man had been contrived ; to penetrate 



1 86 RANDOM RIMKS. 

The silent dome of night and tidings bring 
From every circling star ; to break the seals 
Wherein are hid the mysteries of life, 
And comprehend the subtle alchemy 
By which the same kind earth and fostering sun 
Bring forth alike the upas and the palm ; 
To understand the dawnings of the mind, 
And where are forged those links of matchless 

strength 
By which one heart is to another bound, 
Which time, nor space, nor circumstance can 

change, 
Which span the grave and bid us hope that there 
The spirit, like a bird set free, may joy 
To mount above its limitations here 
And find, mid life ineffable, the loved 
And lost of earth ! 

O rapturous thought that yet 
For us there may be time that ceases not ; 
For us the wonders of the realms invisible ; 
For us to gather up the broken strands 
Of hope, and with each faculty of soul 
Exalted to the height of spirit sense. 



MKDITATIVK AND REMINISCENT. 1 87 

Behold the doubts and mysteries of earth 
Dissolve like darkness at the touch of day, 
And trace, with reverent gratitude for all, 
Our origin and destiny, O Thou 
Omniscient, all-sustaining One, to Thee ! 



1 88 RANDOM RIMKS. 



XIX. 
A TRIBUTE. 

Al\ Y aged friend, the years have come and gone 
^ ' ^ Till now the hundredth stands before thy 
door. 

bid him in, nor let him hasten on ; 

A welcome waits, please God, for many more ! 

They throng thee now, since thou so much hast 
done 

To bless the pilgrim years gone on before. 
Beggars they come ; thou greetest every one 

As if he were a king and purple wore. 

1 see them — lo ! a long line stretching on 
Into the shadowy distance of the past ; 

Each bears some cherished work thy hands have 
done, 
Some gracious message treasured to the last. 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 1 89 

Thus do they honor thee. Nor less than they 
Would we in turn our glad devotion prove ; 

Thy faithfulness our hearts would fain repay 
In filial care, and sympathy, and love. 

'Twere joy to live, like thee, endeared to all ; 

To walk unscathed howe'er hate's shafts are 
hurled ; 
To feel upon one's silvered temples fall 

The benedictions of a grateful world. 

'Twere joy to trust, like thee, the Hand Su- 
preme ; 

'Twill hold thee in its love forevermore ; 
Thy feet shall scarcely brush the mystic stream 

Whose waters lave the amaranthine shore. 



I go RANDOM RIMKS. 



XX. 

FRIENDSHIP. 

P LESH cannot always bide the stress of years. 
^ Howe'er delayed, the call 
That summons souls of earth to unknown 
spheres 
Will come to all. 

The mighty oak, whose roots have grappled fast 

The mountain's base below. 
Whose branches bid defiance to the blast, 

Must yet lie low. 

The eternal hills, upon whose heights sublime 

Unceasing sunsets play, 
Are only foam-capped waves the breath of time 

Will sweep away. 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 191 

Friendship shall still endure. This cannot die ; 

For 'tis a thing divine, — 
And it will glow when e'en the stars on high 

Forget to shine ! 



192 RANDOM RIMKS. 



XXI. 

A SAINTED MOTHER. 

DEST, weary one, thy tasks are done ; 
*^ Life's work, long since so well begun, 

Is now complete ; 
Rest, over- toiling hand and brain, 
Rest, faithful heart, from care and pain, 

Rest, willing feet. 

How swift the days of life flit by ! 

How soon the shades of death draw nigh 

Which none may flee ! 
The longest lives so quickly glide 
They 're but a point when viewed beside 

Eternity. 

O Thou who wast her only stay 
And guide through earth's uncertain way 
To realms above, 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 1 93 

Show now unto her loved ones here, 
To whom the world looks dark and drear, 
Thy mother- love. 

Teach them Thy guardian tenderness, 
Which yearns their aching hearts to bless, 

So freely given. 
That e'en in sorrow they may trace 
The benedictions of Thy grace, 

As sweet as heaven. 

And may her footprints glowing bright 
Point out, like indices of light, 

The heavenward way, 
To guide each dear one, till at last 
They all have reached and safely passed 

The Gates of Day. 



13 



194 RANDOM RIMKS. 



XXII. 

IN MEMORIAM. 

Read at the Memorial Service of Dr. D. B. W. 
Worcester, Mass., May 8, 1895. 

'T'HIS hour is sacred time. 
* From devious ways we gather here 
To lay our garlands on the bier 
Of one we love ; and drop the tear 
Of sympathy with all who hold him dear, — 
'Tis sacred time. 

O Death ! Mysterious Death ! 
Thy legions liveried in white 
Elude all stress of mortal sight ; 
We cannot trace the spirit's flight, 
Nor guess what visions may beset the night, 
Mysterious Death ! 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 1 95 

O Death ! Revengeful Death ! 
Methinks it was that thou didst see 
Our friend a fearless enemj^ 
Who oft, so oft, had baffled thee 
That now his fall thou gloatest o'er with glee, 
Revengeful Death ! 

But, Death, thy work is done. 
Thou canst not mar his spotless name, 
Nor seize his meed of honest fame, 
Nor track the soul's immortal flame 
Back to the Sun Eternal, whence it came, — 
Thy work is done. 

And yet, perchance, 'twas kind; 
For it hath set him free to share 
Immunity from every care. 
And pain, and loss which mortals bear — 
Free, like the stars, in God's supernal air — 
Perchance 'twas kind. 

But, oh ! we miss him here. 
The years will circle on apace. 
But one familiar voice, and face 



196 RANDOM RIMES. 

Bright with benignity and grace, 
Greet us no more from his accustomed place ; 
We miss him here. 

Dear friend ! we'll not forget. 
There was so much of the divine 
Commingled with this dust of thine 
That e'en its resting place benign 
Doth now become faith's well-befitting shrine 
We'll not forget. 

Live on, O loyal heart ! 
Thy friends will never let thee die 
While love retaineth memory ; 
Virtue is heir to earth and sky, 
And lo ! she pledgeth immortality ; 
Brave soul, live on ! 

And we shall meet again. 
Silently journeying, one by one, 
After the labors of day are done, 
We'll meet thee at the setting sun. 
Be there, O friend, as wide its gates are flung,— 
We'll meet again. 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 1 97 



XXIII. 

MY BEAUTIFUL DEAD. 

OH ! how can I leave thee, my beautiful dead, 
Pillowed so sweetly there 
In the midst of the luster and fragrance shed 
By blossoms fresh and fair? 
The brightest of buds, and the best perfumed, 

Are fittest to grace thy brow ; 
For the sweetest flower that ever bloomed 
Is the one they garland now. 

How can I spare thee, my beautiful dead, 

Life's labors just begun, 
And time had not yet a silvery thread 

In thy dark tresses spun? 
The roses of youth, in thy face, I see 

Now changed to lilies white, 



198 RANDOM RIMES. 

And the fallen lashes have hid from me 
Their gems of loving light. 

How can I live when my beautiful dead 

Is borne from sight away — 
When the last, sad, comfortless words are said 

Over this lifeless clay ? 
The long, lone years through their cycles will 
run. 

But life will be incomplete ; 
For the wide world holds not another one 

So loyal, and pure, and sweet. 

O spirit blest, of my beautiful dead, 

Ivinger in pity here. 
That my soul may feel, in the gloom ahead, 

Thy precious presence near ! 
Hast thou found a country where pleasures 
sweet 

Have permanent abode, 
O lead, through the dark, my faltering feet 

To find its starlit road ! 



MKDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 1 99 



XXIV. 
GETHSEMANE. 

A LONE in the garden, alone! 
'*' So suffered the Christ in his woe, 
And so unto all 
Comes the ultimate call 
Like him in the garden to go. 

Alone in the garden, alone! 

Like him we may struggle and pray 

For help and relief 

From our imminent grief, — 

Grief ne'er to be taken awa3^ 

Alone in the garden, alone ! 

The world is impatient to share 

Our pleasure and ease ; 

But nobody sees 

The thorns in the crown that we wear. 



200 RANDOM RIMES. 

Alone in the garden, alone! 

We clasp our heart's treasures to-da}^, 

To-morrow bereft, 

In loneliness left, 

Those treasures are taken away. 

Alone in the garden, alone ! 

Kind friends may our sorrows deplore 

Their tears are in vain 

The losses remain, 

No pity can ever restore. 

Alone in the garden, alone! 

The cross and the tomb just ahead, 

And each must respond 

To the summons beyond — 

No other can go in his stead. 

Alone in the garden, alone! 

So help us at last to be brave, 

For the mightiest shrink 

At eternitj^'s brink, 

And pale at its portal — the grave. 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 20I 



XXV. 

SLEEP. 

'T is a consummation devoutly to be wished. 

O TlEIy we linger on, 
^ Only God knows why ; 
Who, when hope is gone, 
Has not longed to die ? 
Who would tarry here. 
Tarry but to weep. 
When retreat is near. 
Beckoning to sleep? 

Life is trial sore, 
Trial old and new ; 
Death, a friendly door 
Opening to view. 
He who lives endures 



202 RANDOM RIMES. 

Sorrow, want, and pain ; 
He who dies insures 
Rest — immortal gain. 

I<ike a tired child, 
On its mother's breast, 
Never reconciled 
Unto needful rest, 
So we fret the day 
Kindly shadows creep — 
Fret — and drop away 
Into dreamless sleep. 



MEDITATIVK AND REMINISCENT. 203 



XXVI. 

UNDER THE SNOW. 

UNDER the snow the flowers are sleeping, 
Wrapt snugly up in their coverlet warm, 
Vainly above them the wild winds are sweeping. 
Vain the rude threats of the tempest and storm ; 
Dropt are their dresses of emerald brightness, 
Dofied the bright mantles the summer times 

bring. 
Sweetly they rest 'neath the sheltering white- 
ness 
Waiting the call of the zephyrs of spring. 

Under the snow the brooklets are flowing, 
Murmuring ever in soft, muffled tones, 
Steadily on to the great ocean going, 
Ice-bound and jostled o'er pitfalls and stones ; 



204 RANDOM RIMES. 

Gone are the flowers that blushed at their 

coming, 
Gone the glad birds that delighted the way, 
Blindly they grope through their dark channels 

humming 
Plaintive appeals for the sunlight of day. 

Under the snow, and under the flowers, 
Down where the tireless rivulets glide, 
Slumber in silence those loved ones of ours. 
Waiting for us to lie down by their side ; 
Closed are the eyes which once thrilled us with 

pleasure, 
Mute the pale lips we have fers^ently pressed, 
Folded the hands— they have finished their labor, 
Journey ings ended, the weary feet rest. 

Under the snow — O wonderful slumber ! 
Parents and children in peaceful repose, 
Brothers and sisters, and friends without number , 
Waiting some signal which God only knows. 
Wonderful shelter the sleepers are sharing. 
Fashioned far up on the looms of the sky, 
White as the raiment the angels are wearing, 
Pure as the souls of the blessed on high ! 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 205 



W 



XXVII. 
RELIEF. 

HY dread the grave? The setting sun, 
Delighted that his course is run, 

Smiles from the west, 
And gilding all the cloud- flecked height 
With matchless tints of rosy light, 
He draws the curtains of the night 

And seeks his rest. 

Why dread the grave ? The lingering leaf 
Of autumn shows no sign of grief 

That it must fall. 
But flitting, dancing, eddying round, 
Responsive to each joyful sound, 
It finds at last upon the ground 

The goal of all. 



206 RANDOM RIMES. 

Why dread the grave ? Is life so dear 
That thou wouldst always linger here 

Oppressed with care, 
When just within a sheltering door 
Wait thee the millions gone before, 
And soon shall countless millions more 

Be gathered there ? 

Why dread the grave? Thy scanty gain 
Earth's glaring furnaces of pain 

Will soon destroy ; 
Release from danger and distress. 
From hunger, cold and weariness. 
From disappointment and duress, 

Is highest joy ! 

Why dread the grave ? The darkness there, 
Toward which thy wandering footsteps fare, 

Is not more drear 
Than that which fills the vast abyss 
Of worlds forgot, preceding this, 
Wherein thy path thou didst not miss 

In journeying here. 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 207 

Why dread the grave ? Full well I know- 
Its walls are chill, its roof is low, 

Its door is fast ; 
And yet those chambers, still and deep, 
Guard well their tenants' peaceful sleep, 
Howe'er so hard above ma}^ sweep 

The biting blast. 

Why dread the grave ? Each spring-time fair 
Shall with new robes of beauty rare 

Thy form inclose ; 
For thee, at blush of morning bright, 
The birds will carol their delight. 
And God's own stars shall watch by night 

Thy sweet repose. 

Why dread the grave ? 'T is but the rest 
Of childhood on its mother's breast. 

Which claims thy stay. 
There one by one we all shall lie, 
And over us the bending sky 
Will croon its softest lullaby 

Till breaks the day ! 



208 RANDOM RIMKS. 

O friendly grave ! O slumber sweet ! 
The sure, the safe, the sole retreat 

From pain and grief ! 
O weary one — it matters not 
From throne or dungeon, hall or cot 
Here find thy troubles all forgot 

In blest relief ! 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 209 



XXVIII. 

THE CITY OF PEACE. 

/^N yonder lone hill stands the City of Peace, 

^^ And among the dark foliage there 

I can see its white spires and glittering domes 

Gleam forth through the still evening air. 
It has beautiful avenues stretching afar, 

And many a cross-running street, 
But no sound of horseman, nor rumble of car, 

Nor din of on-hurrying feet. 

[Peace, 
There's a wide granite wall round the City of 

And its iron gates guard every way ; 
But no one outside seeks to enter therein, 

Nor would any within go astray. 
Sweet flowers abound. By mansion and cot 

The roses and violets blow. 
And yet the inhabitants gather them not 

To wear on their bosoms of snow. 
14 



2IO RANDOM RIMES. 

There are numberless forms in the City of Peace 

Which childhood might claim as its own ; 
But no rippling laughter, no voices of glee, 

Resound through those houses of stone. 
No toys unremembered the corridors fill, 

No need of a guardian's care ; [and still, 
For the dimpled white hands are now folded 

And none are disturbed by them there. 

There are those from mid-life in the City of 
Peace, 

Fair women and brave-hearted men. 
With hand from the plowshare, the workshop, 
the mart, 

The chisel, the brush and the pen. 
All are there, but no clangor of anvil or loom 

Outwearies the sun's waning light, 
No glimmer of dim study- lamp with the gloom 

Contends through the watches of night. 

The aged are there in the City of Peace ; 

Their thin locks were whitened with grief, 
And their shoulders bent low by the burdens of 
care 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 211 

They had borne ere they found their relief. 
They are there, but their pains and their sor- 
rows are gone, 
At the gates of the city they sped, 
And the staff and the crutch they had once 
leaned upon 
Have been left with the ills that are fled. 

They grow old no more in the City of Peace, 

The seasons of bloom and of snow 
In rapid succession alternately come 

Disarmed of each weapon of woe. 
They murmur no more. No discords appear 

To mar the serene of that spot. 
Where those who had striven in enmity here 

Have all of their strivings forgot. 

No scepter is known in the City of Peace, 

Distinctions no longer divide ; 
But pontiff and peasant, and beggar and king. 

In changeless equality bide. 
The same kindly earth folds them fast to her 
breast. 

The same gentle dews nightly fall, 



212 RANDOM RIMES. 

The same zephyrs hill them to untroubled rest, 
And the same loving skies over all. 

No watchmen of earth walk the City of Peace, 

But the angels of God gather there, 
And bending in love over each lowly bed 

They guard it with tenderest care. • 
And while these yet linger new legions draw 
nigh, 

I^est the sleepers might waken alone, 
And thus to and fro they unceasingly fly 

'Twixt the City of Peace and the Throne. 

They are waiting for us in the City of Peace, 

And, whithersoever we fare, 
We shall ne'er find a pathway which leads not 
at last 

With unerring certainty there. 
They are waiting for us. We are hastening on. 

Each eventide brings us more near 
The shadowy portals through which those have 
gone 

Whom we miss in our journey ings here. 



MEDITATIVE AND REMINISCENT. 21 3 

O silent, O wonderful City of Peace, 

God's outlying villa of rest, 
Where He calls all His children to give them 
release 

From the toils that their lives have oppressed ! 
O city coeval with time in its birth, 

And the last yet to be overthrown. 
The gathering place of the millions of earth, 

The seaport for countries unknown ! 



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